


The Trade Off

by MaryShimy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternative Universe - Ben Solo Doesn’t Turn To The Dark Side, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Balanced Force, Be Careful What You Wish For, Canon Divergent, Canonical Character Death, Dark Side Rey, Empress Rey, F/M, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Gray Jedi Kylo Ren, Gray Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Hades/Persephone - Freeform, Happy Ending, Multi, Orpheus/Eurydice - Freeform, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-TRoS, Rey is a Palpatine (Star Wars), Romeo and Juliet References, Sith Rey, Slow Burn, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, The Force Ships It, but she's also not?, each couple has a different inspiration source, no i mean it really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:00:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryShimy/pseuds/MaryShimy
Summary: Alone on a desert planet, with only BB8 and a broken shirt as her company, Rey wishes she could find a way to still save Ben Solo from the monster that is her grandfather, Palpatine.When she wakes up in a palace, with members of the First Order bowing down to her in reverence, addressing her as Empress Palpatine, she realizes that Ben's freedom comes at a cost.Her own.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Poe Dameron & Finn, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 36
Kudos: 87





	1. Be Careful What You Wish For

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to this story. This is a note from the author who wants to tell you she doesn't know where this story is going. She has an idea of how the road looks, but no idea how the destination looks. If she doesn't post a chapter in more than a month, its because she's trying to figure that out. But rest assured, she never drops a story! She never leaves it unfinished. 
> 
> If the main plot point is not clear enough in the summary, I hope the title chapter explains it a little more.
> 
> A GAZILLION thanks to my beta @princeofdarkside / I_Feel_It_Too who I've spent a good amount of time debating with, regarding Force Ghosts and WHY DID BEN'S BODY DISAPPEAR BUT HE DIDN'T COME AS A GHOST!... That's always a fun discussion. :D
> 
> Enjoy!

The air was dry and the sun felt suffocating. Living creatures of various species scarcely explored near where she had taken refuge, and so the loneliness, regardless whether she wanted to admit it or not, was suffocating her more than the dry air. She’d come here looking for silence and a new beginning, somewhere she could figure out what to do next and find not just balance within herself, but some type of proximity to the man she loved.

She didn’t know where he had been born, where he had lived as a child, where he had trained as a Jedi and had then been betrayed, all she knew was the ashes that came after. All she knew was tales of legacies and myths of great beginnings. And so she followed them all the way to Tatooine to try and connect in some way to the Skywalker legacy that at one point led to Ben. 

Led to death… led to nothing but a broken woman in an abandoned house hoping that the next meditation session will bring her answers. It never did. The Force felt satisfied with her turmoil and sadness, it seemed. The Force was quiet in her solitude and the ghosts had left her too. 

She had nothing but a broken shirt and the silent reminder that she should’ve spent less time breaking it and its owner and more time… she never could come up with a way to end that sentence. She didn’t know what she could’ve done differently to change it all, change the ending, where did it all go wrong?

A yelp escaped her lips as she miscalculated the smoothness of the dune she had been climbing and lost her footing, sliding all the way down on her hands and knees. 

When the sand finally stopped shifting she huffed and stood up, brushing away the burning sand from her hands and making sure the rations in her bag had not diminished or gotten lost in the sand during her fall. She was not feeling emotionally well and had a feeling this week wasn’t going to get any better, so she didn’t want to lose the rations she had gathered that could hopefully keep her from having to leave her patch of sand for… for the week if she rationed it well.

Seeing the domes in the distance she gathered speed, regardless of her fall, in hopes of making it to her temporary home with enough time to light the place up and have one last meal before bed. She will meditate tomorrow. 

Rey smiled as she entered the hut and heard the beeps of BB8 telling her it had worried it would have to go out and search for her if she had taken any longer. She felt the rising chill and nodded to BB8, “Do you want me to lie to you and tell you I won’t do it again? You know I can’t control the lines back at the post.”

BB8 chirped that she should let it go with her on those trips and Rey shook her head removing the bag from her shoulder along with the shawl and the hooded cape she has been using to hide her face when in the markets, “I don’t need that attention right now, and you stand out. You’re recognizable BB8, one could even say you’re famous.”

BB8 followed her on her journey to light a few candles before watching her prepare her food before chirping that sooner or later she would have to face society. The droid even dared to say that she had not grieved properly and that she needed her friends to do so. She shook her head.

They wouldn’t understand. They would never understand why she grieved not for Leia Organa-Solo, nor her brother Luke Skywalker, or the great pilot Han Solo, but for the broken man they had left behind. They would never understand.

And how could they. They were so focused on grieving Leia, Luke, Han and all of those who died for the Resistance. They were so busy blaming it all on the First Order. So busy blaming it all on Kylo… 

Celebrating his death…

How could they understand why she grieved. 

BB8 had told her many times to try. Try telling the Resistance about Ben, try telling the Resistance that Ben Organa-Solo has not been properly honored. That Ben Organa-Solo should be remembered as one of the many men and women who died for the Resistance. That Ben Organa-Solo is the only reason why she’s alive. That she’s the reason why he’s dead. And she hates herself everyday for it.

Rey understands why BB8 worries about her being alone with nothing but a droid. She heard the Twi’lek woman who gave her the rations once whisper to two younger men that Rey was the ‘depressed hermit’ she’d spoken to them about. BB8 believed she had used the word ‘depressed’ simply to refer to her physical appearance. She had not said the word in vain. 

Maybe she was depressed. Not even five years ago she had been breaking her back every day to have something to eat on a desert planet with nothing to call her own but her loneliness and now… Now she’s on a different desert planet, claiming corpses and ashes as her legacy and weeping at empty graves. She took what she could and she’s doing so now. 

But all there’s left to grab is a black shirt with a hole. 

So as she laid down with the sound of BB8 humming in the corner, and as he prepared to settle down for the night she chanted the mantra she now repeated to herself over and over every night, “Just one more day. Just breathe for one more day. Fight for one more day. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain. Maybe tomorrow there’ll be answers.”

There never were.

But maybe. 

The next morning Rey sat quietly eating her food as BB8 reported to her on the news and the gossip that Finn and Rose had been sending her to try and keep her in the loop of what the Resistance was becoming in the wake of the war. She barely paid attention to it these days. And she barely replies. 

It was the same old story. Poe and his band of leaders had convinced a new planet to join the Senate to create a unified galaxy where every planet had a voice blah blah blah. A new senator, a new rank, a new speech, a new group of people who proudly spat on the ashes of the First Order and demanded democracy. 

A new planet she couldn’t go to.

It’s not their fault and she knows it. But they wouldn’t make an effort to understand her side of the story if she told it, and she bitterly knows it. So hearing about the growing senate grew irritating very quickly when it came with holos showing people giving speeches of doing what’s right and shaming the First Order for what they did. Always using Ben as the scapegoat for the First Order. She shouldn’t hate them, but the moment they’d begun speaking ill of Ben, this bitter resentment would grow and she’d quickly decide that wherever this senator lived was not the place for her. 

Lately that feeling has been backed by the talk of the people in the market who have already begun speaking of the corruption of the senate and how society is stuck on an endless loop. Senator Tal had slaves. Senator Qor had secretly helped the First Order obtain weapons. Senator Roy was secretly an ex-member of the First Order. Senator Priun ran the mines on her planet with the same iron fist of abuse as General Hux and Captain Phasma from the First Order. The credits are being moved. The credits stay on certain planets. The poor planets remain poor, and the rich planets get richer. 

The Resistance was either really gullible, or corruption was inevitable. 

Rey didn’t care to find out. She was done. Barely a year of war and she’d had more than enough. 

“When will you come back? We are worried about you.” 

Rey grimaced as the holo flickered on, with Rose explaining that her, Poe and Finn have together gotten themselves a home, with a room for her if she’d wanted it. That she’d earned stability and she feared the desert planet was not going to provide that for her. She appreciated the girl but she didn’t understand. Sand has been her entire life. Surviving on poor rations has been her rhythm and rhyme for as long as she can remember. It may not be Rose’s or Poe’s or even Finn’s definition of stability, but it was hers. 

And she had all she needed, a roof over her head, a bed to cry into every night, more rations than she had on Jakku - which Rey suspected had to do with the Twi’lek pretending she didn’t know who Rey was for Rey’s benefit and giving her more rations as a silent gratitude - and a purpose. Something new to look forward to. 

Becoming one with the force. 

But she needed to master it first, and thus she stood up, motioned for BB8 to cut the message and to follow her to the cave where she has been meditating for the past months and secretly practicing saber forms. 

Aside from being hidden from whatever straggler could be roaming around, Rey liked it because it was one of the few places on Tatooine that was cool during the day. Humid in the entrance, chilly the deeper you went. Rey suspected there was a pond or a lake hidden deep in the cave, but she had yet to find it. BB8 always discouraged her, warning her that if she ventured too deep they would not be able to make the trip back to the hut before the night became too cold. 

Rey sat down on a stalagmite she and BB8 had helped smooth out so she could begin her meditation. She closed her eyes hearing the hum and buzz of BB8 rolling around, deciding where he would patiently wait for her to finish meditating before they started saber fighting. BB8 liked to watch her fight, something about her looking alive and almost happy when she did. On any other occasion Rey would have loved the droid, a droid, worrying for her health like that. But now, everytime it did that, Rey only grew irritated. 

When the buzzing stopped and BB8 beeped a quiet repose Rey sighed, focusing on the silence of the cave, on the noise. The water droplets falling so far away in a room so big and hollow that all she could hear was the echo. The steady rhythm calming her as she searched within herself the force, the life within the cave. 

She could feel the drops in her chest, she could feel the silent noise of the cave walls in her veins and, as she focused more and more on clearing her mind, she heard the whisper. 

It was wordless. It felt like someone had whispered in her ear but there were no words, but nudges from the force, feeling like the stalagmite was pushing her off, like the walls were pushing her forward, like the lake was dragging her in, pulling her by the veins that decorated her insides, dragging her by the air in her lungs. She didn’t hear BB8’s distressed beeps as it rushed to follow her where her blind feet were being invited to go. She saw the distress in the force, a small ripple behind her that made the walls vibrate and beautifully highlighted the invisible glow of the force in every corner of that cave. 

In the silent excitement of the forthcoming answers after all but begging for it for nearly a year, nothing really fazed or broke Rey off her trance as she ventured deeper than she ever had into the increasingly vast cave. Not the ever increasing twists and turns, or the branching routes that promised finding her way back could be a problem, nor the many trips and slips on damp, smooth rocks that had been wet for so long it would be more interesting to ask if they had ever been rough to begin with, rather than if contact with them had in any way hurt Rey. If it did, she didn’t feel it. 

The deeper she ventured the more she understood the concept of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because she never would’ve guessed that underneath the scorching, dead sands of Tatooine there could be an expansion of caves so wet and full of life that Rey didn’t need to see the living creatures to feel it. 

There were nooks in many corners with shadows of nests belonging to creatures she’d probably never seen before, and she would not see now as they hid from the foreign intrusion. There was a strange pale blue plant life that grew from the ceiling of the cave and the deeper she went the less of the rock and the walls she saw. And finally the glow.

She couldn’t tell you how deep she had ventured before something other than her lightsaber and BB8’s small flashlight illuminated the vast space. If she didn’t have the force guiding her path, telling her which tunnel to take, the ever growing light would have done it for her. As she pushed deeper into the tunnel she took notice that there were less plants on the ceiling and walls, and that the walls were beginning to get covered with a different material other than rock. Though it was rock.

The crystalline rocks began to make patches on every angle of the tunnel, softening the ground ever further on certain areas, but overall it was less of a bother and more of a wonder as there was a faint glow coming from the rocks themselves, making the tunnel almost its own light source. But Rey only realized her eyes had adjusted to the dark too much and the glow wasn’t that strong when she reached the end of the tunnel and she found the lake.

The room was about as big as the place she was currently calling home, but the lake was bigger since it clearly continued past the wall at the other end of the room, beneath the wall that didn’t touch ground. But that didn’t matter and, for the first time in a while, Rey’s curiosity and sense of adventure did not make her ask where did the lake end. The room was enough to more than satisfy her. 

It was… bright. And thus it took nearly a minute for Rey’s eyes to adjust to the room and take notice of the beauty of it. Every inch of the cave was the crystalline rock of various colours, but the glow from the walls, the ceiling, the floor or the agglomeration of stalagmites and stalactites was still faint and barely there. The majority of the light was coming from the lake itself, and Rey wondered for a minute if the purple glow of the lake was suggesting she shouldn’t touch the water. 

It wasn’t the purple water that glowed however, clearly the white light was coming from beneath it and the water was actually dulling it as much as it could. It was like the brightest crystalline rock was hidden beneath the water and Rey had no doubts about it as the tip of that rock protruded from the center of the room, in the middle of the lake. There was a tiny island in the middle of the lake, made of this dull crystalline rock surrounding the bright stalagmite that seemed to be offering something to her. And so she entered the lake.

She thanked her lucky stars the lake never went past her shoulder blades as she struggled to cross over to the island, barely aware that the majority of the struggle had to do with her body not reacting kindly to the rather cold water and demanding she’d leave it. But she was currently hidden in her subconscious where all she could hear was the pleased hum of the force as she pushed closer and closer to the rock. 

When she made it to the island her mind didn’t register the shiver in her body, the desperate beeps from BB8 who was stuck on the other side of the lake begging her to come back and leave, the tremble of her fingers in excitement as she took notice of the small pearl shaped crystal that resided on top of the hip tall black stalagmite. 

All she registered was the sense of accomplishment as her fingers took the tiny ball in her hand and watched it roll on her palm, a little black, round, transparent crystal with a glow so faint if she didn’t know the rocks glowed she wouldn’t even have noticed it. 

And suddenly there was sound. Everywhere.

Having gotten to where it wanted her to go, the very active presence of the force left for the more passive one inside of her, leaving her alone with the beeps of BB8, the sounds of waters, the chirps of whatever curious creature hid in these caves and the shivers in her body as she finally took notice of how cold the water was. Even the gasp that escaped her felt cold. 

She turned around, palming the crystal as tightly as possible and yelped as she went back into the water, trying to cross it as quickly as possible to get back to BB8 who promised her it could remember the path back, but feared night had fallen. The cold wasn’t leaving any time soon. 

Back on the other side, Rey tried to not slip as she attempted to run behind BB8 but both those things were proving difficult first due to the smooth crystal that covered the ground, then to the smooth and humid rock that it had blended to. But mostly because she was shaking so much running was quickly becoming an impossible feat. 

When her body refused to move forward anymore, forcing her on her knees as the shivers were becoming too much, BB8 rushed to her, panicked beeps about her health and how she looked rather pale before it quieted down as though considering something. Finally it got as close to her as possible and beeped at her to grab it in her arms, that it would tell her where to go. Rey wondered for a painful second if BB8 had suddenly become just strangely lazy when she felt it’s hot metal and all but made BB8 a part of her skin as she quickly wrapped her arms around it and hugged it close to her chest. 

BB8 hummed quietly as she calmly tried to balance her body temperature before beeping at her to move west. A minute later and she finally gathered the strength to get up and follow the soft orders from BB8 as it guided her back from her force induced trance. The plants were less beautiful, the nest less mystical this time around as all she could think is ‘the force has a cruel sense of humour’. 

She had been asking for guidance for months and when it finally provided it, it had her running blindly through what felt like a freezing cave before abandoning her once she’d gotten what it wanted her to find. It didn’t seem to care if she made it back alive with that find or made something with it. And something deep inside told her that this journey back was in itself the test to prove if she was worthy of this find, but right now she was cold, heartbroken and bitter, so fuck the force for abandoning her there. 

When she reached the entrance of the cave she sighed and for the first time in months, the cold of the night in Tatooine felt almost warm compared to the humid freeze of the cave. She put BB8 down who proceeded to beep at her warnings about her footing and unstable sands all the way back to the hut. She only encountered one Rodian who seemed to recognize her but had no idea how to approach her in the middle of the night. So instead it just gawked at her as she walked away, slightly shivering in the night. 

When she reached the hut she dropped her bag, belt, lightsaber and the rock next to her bed and dropped on it exhausted and desperately seeking any form of heat from the thin blanket that had been gifted to her in the market. She doesn’t remember what happened afterwards, but she does remember finally falling into a soothing sleep as the shivering stopped. The next morning she realized BB8 had decided to rest pressed to her back that night. She nearly cried. 

She went about doing her usual morning routine of preparing a small breakfast, barely conscious there was still a faint shiver in her fingers as she fed herself, groaning in frustration as she heard another holo tell her another shady senator had been chosen and ignoring once again Finn’s question regarding when she would come back. She packed up for the trip back to the cave before she remembered, she had an answer. 

She immediately dropped her saber and bag on the table as she sought out the small crystal pearl, sighing in relief as her fingers tightly grasped it. She nearly died for it, and was still feeling chills in her body because of the cold. She feared what she would do with herself if she lost it. 

BB8 beeped at her wondering if she knew what it was and what to do with it. And the frustrating answer was; no. BB8 asked then if that meant they had to go back to the cave. Clearly the little droid had not enjoyed the scare she gave it yesterday. She smiled and shook her head, “What drove me to that cave to meditate is in my hand right now. I can meditate just fine in here.” 

BB8 hummed in relief and rolled around in circles surrounding her as she decided on a spot to sit down and once again beg for some type of clue as to what to do with the crystal pearl or what it meant. But just as she was settling down she heard the hum of the force and immediately knew she was not alone. She turned around to find a man she thought she had seen for the last time. 

“Master Luke.”

He smiled. Rey watched in silent confusion as the ghost of the man walked around the house, looking around as though he’d never seen it before. Regardless, he was quiet and patient. And Rey had been all but abandoned by the force for, “Eight months.”

Luke turned around, seeming casually interested in what she said, “Hmm?”

“I’ve been here, on this planet for eight months. Alone. Waiting for something, anything. An answer, a clue. And nothing.”

Luke smiled and nodded, “And you waited more than ten years for your parents to come back, and you also got nothing. If anything, I came to you rather too quickly.” The man finished, stopping in front of her, with his hands nonchalantly clasped behind his back. 

Rey stared at the man in silent anger, too stricken by his truth to glare at him, and in her silence Luke went back to taking a look around the home of his childhood before settling on a chair and waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t Luke nodded, “I’m curious as to what drove you to come to my and my father’s home planet. What brought you here?” Luke paused for a second as though remembering something, “To be honest, we all are. My father more than anyone. He can’t fathom someone who’d been trapped on a sand filled planet, having the opportunity to go anywhere and then choosing another sand filled planet.” 

Rey heard the question, understood what he was asking, but all she grasped was that Luke was giving to her questions from the beyond. Questions from people who are dead. People like, “Is Ben there with you?”

Luke’s face was non-reactive. He tilted his head as his lips gave a small quick upwards, “I can’t dispose of that information, Rey. The Force does not wish you to know.”

If the man weren’t dead, Rey would’ve murdered him, right there. She sighed, heavily, “That’s not a no.”

“Is not a yes, either. And that’s not why I’m here.”

Nearly a year of waiting for this. 

She glared at Luke, “Why are you here, then?” 

Luke shrugged and pointed to her clenched hand, “You won’t find a book, holo or text that could ever explain to you what that is. Even I don’t understand how it came into existence or why. All I know is it is dangerous in the wrong hands.”

Rey took a step closer, “Am I the wrong hands?”

Luke shook his head, “I think that’s what the force wants to figure out.”

Rey scoffed, shaking her head before muttering, “You should’ve told me. About Palpatine, about my legacy-”

“You learned more about the force and morality in ignorance. Look what knowing did to Ben.” Luke shook his head, “You can be angry at me all you want, but I won’t regret keeping quiet. Knowing you come from a rotten tree makes you question if you’re rotten fruit. It happened to me and Leia, it happened to Ben and it is now happening to you.”

Rey stayed quiet as the man stood up, “Finding out my father was Darth Vader nearly drove me to the Dark Side a few times, it drove Ben fully into it, it cost Leia many people’s trust and her political standing. Once that seed of doubt and self-hatred gets planted in your head, it is a war of its own to uproot it. It would have stifled your growth, your training and your mission, and the stakes were too high at that point for me to risk it just so that you could believe, for even a second, that I was a decent person.” 

The silence that followed was deafening. 

Luke sighed as Rey stayed in quiet contemplation, “Do you know the Rule of Three?”

“Is this your way of telling me this is the last time I’ll see you?” 

A chuckle escaped Luke as he stared at her, amused, confused and surprised at the jab, “Maybe. I don’t know if this will be the last or if I’ll be your company for the next month. I don’t decide that. Regardless, you get the rule?”

Rey nodded, sitting down on the floor and preparing for a forced Force lesson, “Everything comes in thirds to create balance. It contradicts the idea that balance can only be achieved by uniting two opposites, because it points out the third element of the ‘what comes after’ or the ‘what’s left over’. Like the Force itself; there’s light, darkness and the inbetween.” Rey looks down at the crystal pearl and asks, “Is this the ‘inbetween’?”

Luke shook his head, “No, it simply follows the rule as it provides you three of something.”

Rey looked up in fear, “Are there two more of this that I have to find?” Luke stayed silent, seemingly contemplating how to explain what happens next. Soon enough Rey lost her patience, “Master Luke!”

Luke sighed, “If you could have anything you ever wanted, what would that be?”

Her eyebrows raised in confusion and she scoffed, “A loving family?”

“But that’s waiting for you back at the Resistance?” His expression did not show the mockery that his words spewed. 

Rey scoffed, “They won’t be able to help me. They don’t understand what I’m going through-”

“Because you won’t let them.” Luke shook his head and looked out the window, “You got a little lazy in the matter of social interactions thanks to that bond you had with Ben. You can’t expect people to just know how you’re feeling and why. You can’t expect them to understand your grief if you don’t explain to them the experiences you went through. They are not inside your mind.”

Rey choked on the mention of the bond, something that gave her continuous pain, so much that she had learned how to compartmentalize pain so she could continue on honoring his sacrifice by living. But it's always there, always aching, always reminding her of why regardless of where she goes, she will never stop feeling lonely. “The bond is the problem,” she breathed in, “Thanks to him being gone it always feels like there’s this gaping hole in my soul, this soul-ripping gash that only expands and never heals. I’m in constant pain-”

“We know,” Luke’s face showed understanding and pity, “There’s a disturbance in the Force in the wake of your broken bond. It sort of feels like… like this wasn’t what the Force wanted. Like there was more that Ben had to do but… Well.”

She nodded, glaring at nothing, “Well I’m glad we all agree he didn’t have to die.”

“Do you want him to come back to life?”

Rey looked up, her eyes immediately connecting to her Master as the lesson neared its end. She slowly nodded. 

Luke nodded, “That pearl might be able to help you with it.”

Just as Rey opened her mouth to ask how the fuck could the ball help her, Luke dissapeared. 

She gaped at the empty room, trying to read between the lines and seeking answers in the silence that followed his departure. She dropped back in frustration, wincing as her head hit the floor a bit too hard and turning to BB8 who was now rolling to her. Having only heard her side of the conversation Rey told BB8 who had been here and what he had said, hoping hearing it twice would expose the answer.

BB8 rolled a little closer and timidly asked if she really wanted Ben ‘aka Kylo Ren, enemy to the Resistance and the Republic’ to come back to life. Rey sighed, understanding what BB8 was implying and knowing it was right. Ben would not be able to live, in peace or regardless, in a world that only sees him as a monster, as the enemy. 

She groaned in frustration, squeezing her hands, feeling the nails nearly perforate skin and the pearl uncomfortably pressed into a muscle, “I just wished-...” Rey thought back on what Luke said about her knowing who her family was, what kind of legacy she carried and how it ruined Ben and she sighed, “I just wished the Dark side, Snoke, Palpatine, none of it ever got to Ben.”

BB8 beeped in remorse as it bumped its metal head against hers in an attempt at soothing her. Rey smiled and stood up and followed BB8 out of the room and out of the house where it began to excitedly beep that if she wasn’t going to finish meditating they could start on the saber forms. A small chuckle escaped her as she grabbed her bag, dropping the pearl inside as she took her saber from the table, eyeing BB8 as it once again struggled to roll up the initial dune, yelling at it that they could practice here instead of the cave today.

Both ignorant to the slowly increasing glow in Rey’s bag. 

After hours of distracting herself with different swings and forms, Rey’s stomach growled and BB8 demanded that she’d go back inside and eat. Rey looked up at the sky and saw the setting Suns and nodded.

After a small meal, a few updates from BB8 and another attempt at meditation, Rey fell asleep under the weight of riddles and questions and so much disappointment. She dreamed of Ben. She dreamed of Ben following her in that mystical cave, Ben explaining to her what everything in the cave was, though, even though his mouth moved, words never reached Rey. She appreciated his company nonetheless. When they reached the crystal room Ben’s eyes lit up with excitement as he turned to her, motioning for her to go and get it. 

The water was warm this time, and it was only when she reached the rock that she realized Ben had not crossed the lake with her. Ben wasn’t even there anymore. But Ben told her to get the pearl, and she was going to. 

When she grabbed the pearl she immediately knew that she had gone from being alone, to being surrounded, and as she looked up she saw Kylo Ren staring back at her, a faint smirk on his lips, satisfied with her actions. A different kind of fear enveloped her as she turned around to find Ben smiling at her, satisfied with her actions. And everywhere she looked there was Ben, Kylo, different ages, different stages of being one another, of being both at the same time. And they were all satisfied with her. 

Just as she was about to ask what, his voice reached her. Kylo’s voice.

“Be careful what you wish for.”


	2. Where am I? Who am I? What am I?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey wakes up in a new place with a familiar setting that unsettles her. She does her best to blend in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised thrice, and like... hours worth of lore discussion later, chapter 2... two days after I said I was going to post it. *nervous laughter*
> 
> To be fair, I think I should go back and sit through chapter one and fix that one mistake I constantly did through all the chapters, the reason why this was delayed. But I'm gonna leave it. Fuck it. If you can figure out what that error is, then I'll give you a clue as to where this story is going. 
> 
> Because I have a map now. Five story maps. A Prologue story line, a Jedi Ben/Rey Palpatine story line, the main story line with its SEVEN subplots, the last one which becomes the ending for the main story line. I have thought this through and let me tell you. Strap. The. Fuck. On! This is gonna be a LONG ride! Because I have written 6 chapter and we have only touched on the Prologue story line, a bit of JB/RP and have only grazed the tip of Ben and Rey's romance story. 6 chapters of just prologue. 
> 
> Get fucking ready. I will feed you Reylo for the next ... year? Probably. You won't go hungry. 
> 
> Now that I'm done being weird...
> 
> ENJOY!

The howling of an alarm woke her up and confusion dragged on from dream to reality. 

Her hand pressed to her chest, trying to calm down her breathing, eyes squeezed closed as she tried to brush away the feeling that she may have done something wrong. Rey felt her hair slip annoyingly in front of her face as she sat, head hanging down, and she groaned, annoyed that she would have to tie her long hair back up in-

Long hair?

Rey opened her eyes and felt her heart stop cold. 

This wasn’t Tatooine.

She looked around the dark room, feeling her mouth drop in fear and confusion. Instead of round walls made of bright sandstone that reflected the light from the twin suns that should be lighting up the room by now, she saw cream marble in a vast rectangular shaped room, the gloss from the marble reflecting tiny bits of light here and there from some electronics and that bit of light which slipped through the ceiling-to-floor, plum colored velvet curtains. Instead of sand covered sandstone on the floor and a makeshift bed, she found smooth black marble tiles beneath a large bed that, upon departure from it, she noticed appeared to be floating. The metal beneath it suggested this was one of those mystical beds that floated due to the permanent repulsion of opposing magnets. She didn’t have time to marvel at this fascinating piece of technology as she felt the end of her night robe fall against her knees, a robe she had not been wearing to sleep or ever seen before in her life. Black spaghetti straps leading to a satin nightgown that dropped to her calves on skin that seemed a shade whiter than she had always seen it be. 

Nothing looked the same and Rey quickly became scared of looking in a mirror. 

Trying to find even a bit of something she recognized, Rey crossed the vast room, past unnecessary mulberry colored velvet couches and rugs so soft she felt like she was walking on clouds, all the way to the large door at the center of the opposing wall. Upon opening it she encountered another big room, smaller than the one she had woken up in. The curtains were drawn, there were couches and tables and such elegantly carved chairs, food on trays, beautiful plants in ceramic pots, and three women who appeared to be discussing their plans for the day as they prepared the table. 

The oldest of which turned around immediately and gave a stern and polite smile to Rey, curtseying. “Good morning, your Majesty. I was worried we were going to have to wake you. Her Majesty is not one to wake up late.” 

The younger women quickly followed after, curtseying to a very confused Rey. She stayed quiet.

The older woman motioned for one of the young women, the short brunette, to head towards the room and do her job by giving her a silent nod forward. She smiled at Rey as she proceeded towards the room where Rey was in, and in silent fear and doubt Rey slightly jumped out of her way, not missing the look of confusion and fear from the young woman as well. The brunette disappeared behind another, smaller door hidden on the wall opposite the vast curtains. Rey turned back to the two women who had finished setting the table and were waiting beside it for Rey to do something.

When she didn’t, the older women sighed in honest annoyance. “Your Majesty, you need to eat. As I told you yesterday, I’m not going to tolerate this childish behaviour. Now sit and eat, we have a long day ahead of us.” 

The blond beside the graying woman flinched in fear, but the older one didn’t seem at all bothered to drop the nice act and tell Rey what to do. Something which she highly appreciated now because she was so confused as to what was going on, but felt it in her soul that asking was not something that was expected of her. They were all acting like this was their daily routine and Rey’s hesitation was the only thing breaking them from it.

As Rey sat down the older woman sent the young one to ‘fix the bed and prepare a bath’ and then stood quietly by the table, against the wall as Rey slowly began eating. Three bites of the sweet meats and Rey stopped, finally noticing the pin on the woman’s chest. It looked like nothing she had ever seen before. It wasn't the black symbols that commonly represented both the Galactic Empire or the Old Republic, it also wasn’t the black or blue symbols that represented the First Order or the Resistance. It was a red diamond overlapping a red ring. And none of the history holos she had read showed that symbol. 

She swallowed and dared to ask, “The pin?”

The woman quickly looked down to make sure it was still in place and properly displayed before saying in a monotone voice, “Long live the New Empire, long live the Sith Eternal and long live the Empress.” 

Well… there were three things Rey had not heard in a long while or at all. Quickly the memory came to her, remembering who had mentioned the Sith Eternal. “Palpatine.”

“May he rest in peace.”

Rey sucked in air as she realized that wherever she was, the residents were Palpatine sympathizers. That may be the only reason they were treating her nicely: because of her heritage. They didn’t know she was the Jedi who killed him.

When, in contemplation, Rey stopped eating, the woman grew tired and huffed, pulling the chair beside Rey and forcing her hands to move and feed herself. “Call me mean, call me stubborn, call me disrespectful, I don’t care, but I have not spent the past fifteen years of my life raising you just so that a dumb boy’s rejection can take you away from me. You’ve survived worse, Rey. Don’t disappoint me or your family by letting a man, even worse, a jedi take you down simply because he can’t recognize perfection when it’s standing right in front of him.” 

Rey all but became a puppet at her hand as she fed her, baffled and confused by everything this woman kept saying. 

“I need you to stop moping. The best revenge is to stand tall and proud today at the announcement and show him that his words mean nothing to you.” Suddenly she dropped the fork and grabbed Rey’s hand, the gesture so tender Rey was quickly beginning to believe her words when the woman said she raised her, the woman sighed. “I wish I had said no to you more often as a child, as a growing woman. Fear for your grandfather made me obedient and dumb, forgetting the essentials to raising a child. Though, I fear regardless, this boy’s rejection would have hurt you. But nonetheless I feel you would’ve been more prepared for it.” 

This woman had been holding on to this for a while. Probably had been waiting for the younger ones to leave, for her to be sure they would not interrupt. This woman was doing something that appeared to not be socially accepted. And Rey internally flinched wondering where she was and what was this place where being kind and caring to her was not socially accepted. 

Rey was also very curious about this rejection and this ‘boy’, this ‘jedi’ that had seemed to hurt her in the previous days, enough to leave her sort of depressed. 

Unsure of what to call her, and knowing full well by the context that she should know the woman’s name intimately, Rey just nodded, squeezing the woman’s hand as she whispered, “Thanks.”

The caretaker, probably her nanny in this strange place, nodded and stood up, pulling the plate away and motioning for Rey to join her in the big room, which the more Rey thought about it the more she began to understand it was her bedroom. 

Confused and scared to do anything that would point out that she was an impostor of whoever they were supposed to tend to, Rey let the women drag her along for whatever the original girl’s routine was. While being washed in an exquisite smelling bath, the nanny tenderly washed her hair and gave her a run down of what the… Empress? Was supposed to do today?

Rey nodded along as the nanny, who one of the ladies referred to as Maaru, told her that after the meeting with the Coruscanti Senator, a Cerean named Disoo Alar, regarding the expansion of trade routes for the planet, that she would head to the ballroom and from the main balcony she would announce to the galaxy the new planets that had joined the New Empire, six of them, and rejoice with her people at the ever growing expansion of the Empire. After the period of rejoicing, she would join Hux for a briefing on the scouting for new planets that will peacefully surrender, to which Maaru snidely added, “Just another day of reminding that quivering snake what his place is.” After which she would have dinner with the Senators of the new Imperial planets in celebration of the union. 

Finally, afterwards, she would have the rest of the night to do what she wished, an announcement that was accompanied by the stern reminder from Maaru that just because she’s a grown woman who controls the galaxy and can do what she wants, it does not mean she can go to bed late. While confused about where she is -well, apparently in Coruscant-, why she’s here and what role she really plays here -still not believing the whole Empress thing-, Rey did yearn for the mysterious childhood she apparently shared with this woman. 

Standing in front of a mirror, wrapped in a towel while the ladies brought her her underwear and Maaru carefully dried her hair with a towel, Rey took in the new body she possessed. Aside from the slightly paler shade of skin, the waist long hair and the sparse new scars that adorned her body -though her fingers felt more on her back as she clipped on the strapless bra- nothing else had really changed. She just looked like she had been more well taken care of in the past two decades, unless you look at the scars. 

But she also had the same muscles she had on her previous body and she did notice a saber hilt resting on the nightstand when she came back for the bath, so she figured they were scars she wore with pride as signs of a surviving warrior. 

Underwear on and hair dried, she followed Maaru and the younger woman out into the bedroom and internally whined as she was forced into a gown that had to cost more money than she had seen in her lifetime. The coal black, floor length gown was made of a velvety material that lacked shine. Rey being genuinely confused, the ladies had to help her into a gown which only had one sleeve and a neckline Rey had never seen in any holo before. It cut through her chest like a sash, going diagonally from her right collarbone to her left hip bone, only covering one of her breasts, finally making sense of the elaborate brassier design. The strapless bralette was made of gold satin, covered with red lace so thick and elaborate that it made the gold look like the yellow glow inside a fire. 

The one sleeve ended in a diamond point, with a small gold ring on her middle finger holding the sleeve in place. Despite the cut of the upper part of the dress, the top was like a second skin to her with three gold moldeable metal belts holding the material in place on her waist. From that point on the skirt flared out to nearly an entire foot behind her, the slit on her right leg that started an inch below the belt opening her up for display. She was also propped up on black gladiator heels with wraps that ended on her thigh, heels which she profusely feared walking in, but her body seemed to know how to use them like a weapon. A black, thin ribbon adorned her neck, a gold cuff adorned the upper half of her nude arm and gold rings adorned every finger on her right hand. 

While the young brunette, who Maaru referred to as Aeela, painted her fingernails black and the blonde, Croela, painted her toes the same color, Maaru took upon herself the task of dressing up Rey’s waist long hair. Maaru appeared to be the reason she had such long hair, aside from the fact the woman herself had waist long salt and pepper hair, she appeared to love Rey’s as well as she left the majority down, falling over her like a waterfall, and only tied up a small chunk of it with an elaborate crown-like braid that ended on a bun behind her head, holding up the black gold diadem that seemed to have been made specifically for her. The diadem had nothing but a small ruby centered on her forehead. 

Her brassiere, the ruby and her blood red painted lips were the only red on her, as even her eyes had been decorated in gold, Maaru making a comment to Creola that Rey had enough black on her, that including the dark chestnut of her hair, and that gold would make her eyes stand out more with this ensemble. 

By the time these women were done, Rey could almost believe she was an Empress. She definitely looked the part. Aeela and Creola curtseyed and left to do whatever they were supposed to do next after dolling Rey up like a queen. Maaru stood beside her in front of the large mirror in the adjacent room that seemed to house Rey’s intimates, footwear, casual attire and her jewels. After admiring her art, she nodded and offered her elbow to Rey, who instinctively took it, letting the woman guide her out of what appeared to be her own private corner in this increasingly vast building. 

When the halls became more populated Maaru took her hand away from her elbow and waited a beat before continuing on behind Rey, which only led to Rey nearly taking two wrong turns. Before Rey could make the third one, Maaru sighed and decided to walk before her. The generals and soldiers and servants that they came across gave only a second long glance in confusion at the … maid? Leading the Empress, but continued on forward after noticing it was Maaru. 

Two floors down a Firs- Imperial General attempted to stop Maaru to speak with Rey, when Rey noticed that Maaru quickly shook her head and continued forward leading Rey, leaving a nodding and knowing General behind them. Rey appeared to be the voice of authority here, but Maaru was the voice of authority regarding Rey. If Maaru said you couldn’t or shouldn’t talk to Rey, you should take it on good authority that it is for your own good. 

Rey sighed and they neared a door with a plaque that said Imperial Conference Room. This was a weird, and long dream. 

Maaru opened the door for her, motioning for her to go inside where the Coruscanti Senator was waiting for her, head bowed, arms firmly at his side. The Cerean man did not look up until she had seated herself, with the help of Maaru, on the Empress’s designated chair, clearly one that was supposed to resemble a throne, but rather tame compared to the ones she’d seen in certain holos, or the one she’d seen Palpatine sit on. Once seated the senator looked up with a calm smile, greeting her as he sat down next to her at the large table, giving a short nod to Maaru who proceeded to situate herself in the corner of the room, hands clasped in front of her, an indifferent expression on her face. 

“Forgive me if this is too brash, your Majesty, but those jewels look spectacular on you.” The man was clearly enjoying the view and seemed proud of himself in the process. 

Rey doesn’t know what possessed her to say, “I didn’t wear them for you.” She didn’t recognize her cold, partly annoyed voice, though clearly it was her who said it.

The man laughed. “Yes. I know who you wear them for,” he muttered, giving a sly look at Maaru, that knowing smile never leaving his face. “Regardless, you’ve got to admit, I’ve got a keen eye for jewels that can make your beauty stand out in such ways that there are no words for it.”

Ah, the man was who had given her… the rings? The diadem? Regardless, he was admiring Rey in self-praise and not in lust. Rey nodded, attempting to smile, but recognizing what her lips did could barely be categorized as such. 

When Rey didn’t add anything else to the conversation, the man gave a quick look at Maaru and then turned back to her with a politician smile. “Alright, regarding the trade routes towards the outer rim.” The man pulled out holos upon holos, suggesting routes and defending his suggestions, giving essays upon essays worth of information to Rey as to how these expansions could benefit both Coruscant and the New Empire. 

Rey heard nothing. 

Well… she ingested the information, she just didn’t process it.

After three unanswered questions, Disoo -the senator-, sighed, giving Maaru a quick glance and nodding in resignation before giving Rey the sweetest smile he could formulate. “How about we continue this next week? There’s so much more I want to tell you and we are running out of time. I’ll be leaving for a few days for those meetings with… them, but when I come back, I will talk your ear off, your Majesty.” A carefree laugh escaped him as he clearly attempted to make a joke which Rey was not getting. 

It wasn’t until she left with Maaru that she grasped a bit at who the man might be, if Maaru’s fleeting look was anything to go by. If Maaru was her surrogate mother, then Disoo had to be like a surrogate uncle, based on his behaviour to Rey, and he was hanging on to every indication from Maaru to know how he should behave around Rey. Rey would have guessed surrogate father originally but it was clear their relation wasn’t close enough, even if his and Maaru’s was. 

“You already miss him.” 

Maaru faintly tripped on her steps in front of her before continuing on like it didn’t happen, a proud example of elegance and pride. “A week without him will be a blessing, your Majesty.” 

A small laugh escaped Rey, shaking her head as they walked through a maze of corridors leading to the second floor of the castle where the ballroom was located and where the main balcony to the city was. 

The more she thought about the balcony the more she panicked. From it she would have to give a speech in welcome and celebration about the six planets that had joined the New Empire… and she didn’t just not know which planets they were, but she also had not a single clue what to say. 

Stopping a few feet from the closed doors towards the balcony where around twenty people were bustling around in last minute panics regarding the live presentation about the Empress’s welcome and running around making sure that everything was going according to plan, Maaru slid a bit too close to Rey where she handed her a holo with a speech that she would need to memorize in minutes. 

Rey looked up at Maaru, panic in her eyes but all Maaru did was give a stiff smile and step back with the younger ladies who were waiting for any command. 

Focusing on nothing but the words on the holo that she kept reading and rereading in her head over and over again until she felt like she would dream about this too, she almost missed the two older Generals who’d stood by the door, waiting for her to… do something.

Rey looked at Maaru who only reached out for the holo, grabbing it and stepping back with the ladies. Turning back to look forwards she sighed, having a feeling of what she had to do. She nodded, watching as the Generals nodded back, opening both doors in a grand gesture before stepping and positioning themselves on opposite corners of the balcony, Rey now realizing that while elegantly dressed to emit a sense of authority, they were also armed to fight if… 

Rey sighed and walked out, her body walking as though indignant about having to do this, her mind telling her over and over again that if they puked they could be excused from having to do this. She ignored her panicked mind for now, letting muscle memory guide her through this endeavour. 

Below her was a gathering of Coruscanti civilians, all huddled into the central courtyard until they spilled out of the castle outer walls into the streets beyond. Black armored stormtroopers lined the edges keeping people from entering the gardens or getting too close to the castle doors. 

Someone had mentioned that Hux would be below her at the entrance, keeping order with the stormtroopers, so when the cheers died down, she understood it had been him signaling silence. 

She took a deep breath, the words playing out in her mind. “Today forms another joyous day for the New Empire as we welcome here six new planets to our growing reign.” Rey took another deep breath, internally baffled at how steady her voice sounded considering the storm inside her head. “Together with Dasoor, Axxila, Ogemi, Horuz, Klatooine and Panna we will grow and learn the values of compromise and order. As these planets do their part to bring fruit and riches to the New Empire, we will do our part to ensure that theirs grow as well. Today we unite with our new brothers and sisters and welcome a new tomorrow where there is no us and them, but one galaxy united in search of a better tomorrow. Today we are not the Colonies or the Outer Rim. Today we are the New Empire, united as one.”

As she progressed through her speech more and more people broke the silence, the cheers growing to a roaring fire by the end where the applause was deafening. 

She smiled, the most regal smile, most politician smile she could formulate as the cheers spread on to the outer walls and out into the city. She looked around wondering how this all could belong to her and why would these people all listen to her. It didn’t make sense no matter how she looked at it. The admiration in their faces, the hope in their eyes, the loyalty in their smiles. This… wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. 

She looked left towards the dark skinned General who looked to be around fifty and carried a ‘Don’t fuck with me’ attitude. When he noticed her stare, he subtly signaled with his fingers behind him with the number four. What did it mean? She didn’t know. Four more minutes of this? What was she supposed to do for four more minutes?

She looked back at her people and smiled once again, trying to come up with theories and explanations as to how this happened. 

By the time both Generals turned firmly towards her signaling her exit, she had come to the conclusion that Palpatine was the answer, but she needed to figure out what were the right questions. As she walked back inside, the cheers and celebration continued on without her and everyone inside bowed, those dealing with displaying her speech live on the holos skipping the bows and going straight for the cheers, high fiving one another for another job well done. How often did it not go right?

Rey ignored the tech boys who were cheering at their technical success, though Maaru was glaring at them and the young ladies looked perplexed by their behaviour. Clearly it was either not allowed in court, in front of her or by her. Maaru turned to look at her expectantly.

She shrugged. “What’s next?”

Maaru nodded and proceeded to walk forward, Rey immediately following her towards a private chamber off of the ballroom where a small meal awaited her. This time as she sat down, a different panic hit her. 

There were too many knives and forks. 

Rey grabbed one of the forks as the servant boy served her plate before being ushered out by Maaru who proceeded to finish serving her, giving her one long look before sighing and picking a different fork further down the line and handing it to her. “Are you okay?”

Rey shrugged, looking more calm and composed than she actually felt. “My mind’s in the clouds right now. What with everything that’s been going on. I’m sorry for acting somewhat out of character.” 

As Maaru genuinely smiled, Rey ate in full wonder and admiration of herself because… where the fuck did that come from? How did she know the right words to say to calm the woman down? I mean, clearly that’s what has the woman worried. Rey is not behaving like her ‘Rey’. And clearly Maaru mentioned that she had a reason for it, due to some ‘boy’, some ‘jedi’. So… 

Quick thinking is what she’ll amount it to. And some muscle memory. Though the latter seemed to only show up whenever it felt like it and, remembering she would have a dinner with six other senators later, she swallowed her pride and addressed Maaru.

“Could I- … Could I have a refresher… course on- on… Table manners?” Trying to come up with the right words and the right pattern for them was a struggle, and for the short time she has known Maaru, she really doesn’t want to disappoint her. And she feared not knowing this would disappoint her. 

Maaru simply nodded and smiled as she sat beside Rey and explained calmly and slowly what every single piece of cutlery and plate and cup were for, including proper etiquette like not placing the elbows on the table, one which Maaru had to remind her of a few times. Back straight, elbows in, don’t lean in. Eating like an Empress was rigid. Rey didn’t like it. 

Soon after, Maaru stood up, seconds before a low ranking officer walked in, announcing to Maaru where Hux was awaiting the Empress and proceeding to open the door for Rey. Quickly after exiting the chamber Rey noticed Maaru was not following which immediately panicked her and made her stop in her tracks.

“You’re not coming?” 

Maaru stiffly smiled, shaking her head. “I am not.” She placed a strange emphasis on the ‘am’. “In case you have forgotten, your Majesty, Hux prefers these meetings to be one on one. And as he said”- a cruel smirk appeared on her face as she recalled an insult from Hux, as though telling it to Rey was the sweetest revenge - “‘War rooms are no place for a nanny.’”

…

Who the fuck does he think he is to be telling Maaru where she can or cannot go?

Maaru gave a knowing smile and nodded. “I will proceed to make sure the preparations for the Senators Welcome Banquet are going as they should.”

Rey watched her walk away with a fervor in her soul and an anger on her tongue for a man she had heard only bad things about in her waking life and in this weird dream. And a strange excitement entered her at the possibility of putting this fucker in his place, knowing full well she could. After all…

She was the Empress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, if you find any grammar or lore errors, please tell me about it and we will revise. Some errors may be intentional, as such it can be with AU's. 
> 
> Please leave comments and kudos. And thank my beta I_Feel_It_Too, because she's getting more involved now and is straight up saving me from committing some dumb ass mistakes with these characters. Let us know we're doing a good job.
> 
> Side-note: reading the comments for this story, and how fast they came after posting, just made me think that the Reylos are in desperate need of love. Like many of you sounded defeated, like 'fuck it, yes. Weird wishing pearl, whatever. Just give me Ben and Rey. I need it!'. 
> 
> And I get it. Being a Reylo kind of sucks right now with what canon has done to us. 
> 
> I envy you guys, because you can read reylo fics and pretend we live in a happier place. I prohibit myself from reading fics about the couple I'm writing as I'm writing so that I don't accidentally add other stories' plot into mine. So I don't accidentally steal. 
> 
> anyway, THANKS FOR READING! See you on Wednesday!


	3. The Other Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey goes about doing her 'duties' hoping that nightfall will bring her back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No shit, me and my beta are so into certain aspects of these stories that we are doing fanart of this for you. Next chapter will have art. And I think the 6th one will have art, a lot. One was supposed to come out for this one but I wasted all of my braincells on bureaucracy. 
> 
> Note: The dress for this episode has a picture. And dresses from now on will have pictures. I will have them on the top note you come into the story with an idea of what we will be describing.  
> [Dress](https://fashion-runways.tumblr.com/post/187383443251/rayane-bacha-medieval-reveries-collection-2019)  
> Enjoy!

As the officer opened the door she felt both excitement and fear inside of her. She could feel the jittery feeling in her fingers, on the tip of her tongue, in the pumping of her veins. Something was going to happen, and her body was hyped up for it.

Hux didn’t look up from his files, making a statement of how very little he cared that the woman who ruled the galaxy just walked in the room. The officer beside her took a breath as though preparing to announce her, but instead she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and shook her head, walking forward and sitting herself on her designated chair at the head of the table. The officer blinked a few times confused, before bowing and leaving the two ticking bombs in a room alone. 

A calm soft smile appeared on her face as she waited for Hux to acknowledge her, knowing full well he was ignoring her on purpose with the intention of annoying her or angering her. Rey has lived through enough and knew enough of the man to know he was petty to a fault. And if Rey has learned something these past few months, it was patience. 

Once her staring became too much for him, he finally decided to look up and grace her with his presence.

“Your Majesty.” He nodded at her, sounding entirely bored and annoyed to be there.

“Hux.”

If the lack of reference towards his title annoyed him, he did a good job of hiding it, as he turned back towards the holo in his hand and proceeded to ignore her for a few more minutes. When her staring didn’t cease he sighed, handing her one of the holos, adding disgruntledly, “Only one planet agreed to join the New Empire this time around. It would be more if-”

“Shut up.” She grabbed the holo, internally relishing at the perplexed expression on Hux’s face, before he quickly collected it into a look of indifference. 

Rey read the letter from the new leader of Hoth, detailing their growing population and how they would like to expand and grow the planet to create a more habitable place to increase the nearly non-existence economy. As such, they would only join peacefully if provided with the resources they lack and in return they would provide Her Majesty with the precious stones and hidden riches of the forgotten planet. If not, they would rather be burnt to a crisp. Hux had snidely underlined the second option. 

Rey smiled and looked up at Hux. “Word has it that Hoth has Kyber Crystals hidden beneath the surface. Aside from that, I’m very interested in the concept of stealing a Republic planet with Republic methods. Give this planet what the Republic could never give them. Prove to the universe why we are winning.” 

Rey held off the full on self-praise high five she wanted to do for delivering such a wonderful reply and attentively watched as one of Hux’s fingers twitched, and she knew beneath that composed nonchalant expression, she had managed to knock him down a notch. She smiled. “You will draft some terms for their surrender as well as arrange for their leader to join us here to discuss the matter of economic expansion.” 

Hux looked straight ahead. “The Trade Route Inquisitors will be leaving to the Hutt system soon and won’t be back for a week or so. It would have to wait until their return.”

Rey nodded. “Good. You can tell time.” 

Hux inhaled deeply but said nothing.

She smiled and nodded, a small question on her mind that actually pertained to the subject matter. “How many planets are still under Resistance protection?”

This seemed to annoy him even more. “Three. D’Qar, Crait and Ajan Kloss.”

Rey leaned back a bit pondering this. The Resistance had never been in these places at the same time. They were planets they had escaped to when cornered. And considering that out of all the habitable or resource rich planets that either the Resistance or the Empire are interested in, these few were the only ones not under their reign, Rey could easily assume that the Resistance had been cornered into the only few planets they still cared to protect.

“That’s not forgetting those planets that are still under the Jedi Order’s protection.”

“Which are?”

He gave a quick sigh of annoyance. “Ahch-To and Dantooine.” 

Dantooine. She had not heard of that planet. 

“Why are they not with us?”

This was the first time since she walked in there that she had managed to procure an honest and vibrant reaction from Hux, as disbelief and indignation clearly crossed his face. “Because you declared that those planets still under Resistance or Jedi protection should be negotiated with, and not invaded? If we had done it-”

“Yeah, whatever. If we are negotiating… Why haven’t we reached some sort of terms of surrender or truce with the Resistance or Luke? Luke is just one man, how have we not taken one of his planets yet?”

The most bizarre expression crossed Hux’s face, which Rey could only describe as worry. “Because both planets are under the protection of the Jedi Master scums Voe and Tai, who protect Ahch-To and that stupid prime temple, and Luke Skywalker and the other Jedi scum, Hennix, who protect Dantooine and the apprentices?” 

… Jedi what? In reality… In reality there was only one Jedi left and that was her. And prior to her it was only Luke. Who are all these others Jedis who did not only work with Luke, but are actual Masters of the art. 

Rey nodded. “My apologies, I’m having a slow day. And Organa-Solo?”

“The Resistance leader?” Hux tried to get back his look of indifference but clearly her questions were throwing him off his track.

She nodded. 

“The negotiations meetings will proceed as usual tomorrow. As always, the whole day is to be freed up and scheduled around the visit of the Resistance leader and her guard dog, with security details heightened to ensure the safety of our enemies.” He sounded like he was reciting from a book, and he hated it. “The stormtroopers are to be situated at the nearest station just outside the city limits to comply with their terms of visit. And I am to be off the planet before the day is over and am only to return once it has been informed to me that the Resistance scum have left the system.”

Negotiations meetings… 

Aside from that very interesting tidbit, Hux’s well trained speech satisfied her to no end. Clearly she had been stubborn enough before to have broken his spirit regarding this matter. “And Maaru?”

“The nanny?” He turned to her confused, before quickly composing himself. “What about her?”

Rey smiled, a cold smile that seemed to break a bit of his composed demeanor. “Why is she not allowed in here?”

He was quiet. 

“I’ve been informed you have dared to ban her from these meetings.” She internally relished that twitch of fear in his eyes. “As though you have a say in the matter.”

“While I understand, Your Majesty, your attachment to the nanny, it is understandable to keep the amount of people who know about these negotiations and Imperial moves to the least amount of ears as possible. The less who know, the less are the odds of betrayal and the demise of the Empire. I will confess with all honesty that while I do believe the woman has an attachment and has loyalty for you, I do not believe she has loyalty for the Empire.”

Rey nodded. She quietly watched as he relished in his statement, proud of having put Maaru on blast.

She stopped nodding. “Remove the ban.”

“The ban is gone.”

Rey could have cried or hell, even orgasmed with pleasure at the quick response from Hux, who clearly feared her enough to disregard his own displeasure for the woman to simply obey Rey’s order. Despite his neutral face, it was clear he feared her with a fervor. She could see it in his eyes.

She smiled. “Alright. Now if I’m not mistaken, unless the Resistance sends a message declaring surrender, you and I have nothing more to talk about, right?” 

Hux sighed through his nose.

She stood up, satisfied with Hux's submissive state. “I have more interestings things to do.”

She turned around and almost walked out before realizing that throughout the entire day, she has not opened a single door. And she felt as though her title warranted that if someone else was there to do it... They should. 

She cleared her throat, standing in front of the door waiting for the shuffling of chairs. When she didn’t hear it, she groaned. “Hux,” she quipped. She heard him sigh and stand up before proceeding to open the door for her.

Before she left she smiled at him, standing a few inches taller than her but less powerful. “You demand compliance from others but refuse to give it yourself? When will you learn that in this world we must give as much as we take. Balance is necessary.”

He blinked at her twice before looking away.

She walked away feeling satisfied for the first time since this nightmare started. 

Rey walked around for a while before Maaru found her, having passed by what appeared to be a security room and a large training room where two young women and a teenage boy appeared to be practicing hand-to-hand combat. Maaru smiled before stepping in front of her and proceeding to lead her somewhere. “Word has it Hux has been yelling at any officer who crosses him or talks to him. I wonder why he’s in such a bad mood.”

“Short temper.”

A faint, controlled laugh escaped Maaru as she shook her head and continued walking. This was normal. Normal for her.

After a rather casual dinner with six men who were desperate to gain her favor and Disoo, who enjoyed pointing it out while adding that flattery would not get them anywhere with the Empress, Rey was escorted to her quarters and left alone for the rest of the evening, but not before being stripped and washed once again within an inch of her life. Left alone with her hair loose, dressed in another expensive, silk nightgown in her trademark - apparently! - color of black, Rey decided to take a look around her rooms before going to bed and hopefully waking up from this weird and long dream. 

In the main living room, on the wall opposite to the one that leads to her bedroom, she found what could only be her private office. With three walls adorned from ceiling to floor with texts and holos and many trinkets, Rey decided to tire herself out in this room, reading everything she could to gather answers as to what happened in this weird place that led to her being Empress. The answers had to be there.

Five hours later and she had come to the conclusion that something was extremely wrong.

Not a single mention of Kylo Ren could be found in any document or on the holonet. And the last mention of Ben Solo was of when he was last seen with his mother at a Banquet at the age of nine. No mention of the death of Han Solo, no mention of the destruction of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple, or his death. And Palpatine had publicly ruled for a while before Rey… killed him. 

The First Order only existed for a decade while Rey was a child before Palpatine disposed of the clone of Snoke and declared his return with his dark heiress Rey, who would soon finish her training and become Empress of the newly established New Empire. At the age of sixteen, after being gifted a saber by Palpatine, she finished her training by immediately killing him with it. With Palpatine’s death, Rey declared herself the new Empress and has since been ruling the Empire with an iron fist and a merciful heart.

After a few hours of reading, it was clear many of the texts she had were biased and written by the New Empire. And she still lacked much of the story. Knowing it was biased, she didn’t believe much of the statements regarding her method of ruling. Well, not all of it. Other Rey has clearly been negotiating instead of fighting with planets and systems to get them to join the New Empire, so clearly, the whole merciful part was in some way true.

But to be honest… the lack of information on the Solo-Organa family worried her. 

Rey woke up hours later with a cramped neck and a disgruntled Maaru, who was nagging at her for having fallen asleep on her desk.

She was in the bath when she realized… this wasn’t a dream. 

She had woken up again still here, and this dream had gone on for too long. Unless she was in a coma back in Tatooine, this didn’t make sense. And the pain in her neck was too real for it to be a dream.

“Will you be training this morning, Your Majesty?”

Rey looked besides her to Aeela, who was carrying a mess of fabrics in one hand, some casual clothes on the other. Training. Sith training? She sighed and nodded. Apparently the meeting with the Resistance would be in the afternoon, so as to give their visitors some time to recover from their trip, seeing as they arrived sometime around midnight. So the least she could do is meditate and calm her mind for now. 

Dressed up in black leggings, a red tunic with black leather saber belt and some comfortable boots she walked around her bedroom, intent on looking for the saber on her nightstand. A small sense of pleasure entered her as she noticed it was a saberstaff, and a sense of belonging soothed her as soon as she grabbed the hilt. She attached the saber to her belt, calmly standing by as Maaru rushed towards her with another hair pin to make sure the braided ponytail stayed in place. As Maaru shoved the last pin in she noticed the black ball on the opposite nightstand. 

She softly pushed Maaru aside as she climbed across the bed towards it, feeling the smooth of the crystal in her hand and remembering the cold of the cave in her bones. Why was this here when nothing else was? What did this mean? Was this tiny pearl responsible for everything that's happening now? She badly wished she could remember what Luke had told her as she’d argued with him. Clearly the pearl had been important enough to warrant a visit from a force ghost.

“Who got you that?” 

Rey looked besides her to find Maaru had gone around the bed to look at what Rey had all but knocked her out for. She stammered, “I- I did. I got it. I...” She couldn’t lose it. “Maaru, can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything you want, my dear.”

After convincing Maaru that it was okay for the trainee ladies to escort her to the training room, and for her to go on her own with her new task, Rey followed the ladies with a mission to get more answers out of them. Rey learned when with the Resistance that gossip was often more honest than the texts, and the servants always knew the gossip. Now how to phrase it…

The girls were quietly walking in front of her, probably having been explained by Maaru that Rey is not fully herself and will be needing guidance for the next few days, regardless of the fact that no servants should walk before their Empress. Creola looked back for a second to make sure Rey was following before quickly looking forward. An idea came to mind. Because there was one other thing that every text omitted.

“Can you tell me what you know about my parents?” 

Her tone was as sweet as nectar, but both girls shivered. Creola looked at Aeela and shook her head, both continuing to walk forward as though Rey hadn’t spoken. 

Rey stuttered in her steps before continuing forward. “Are you not allowed to talk about it?” As soon as the words left her mouth she realized just how stupid that sounded, from the Empress who makes all the rules. But Hux apparently has been going around making his own set of rules, and Rey had no doubt Palpatine had established his before dying. “Forgive me, my memory is a bit foggy and my mind’s a bit slow. I did not exactly have a good night last night, so I’m not exactly sure if it was me who set that rule.”

Aeela took a deep breath before muttering, “It was both you and your grandfather who established we are not to talk about the traitors.”

Rey nodded, curious as to why she herself would prohibit this, considering how thirsty she is for information on her family other than ‘descendant of Palpatine’. “Do you remember their names?” 

“We both grew up in the outer rims, Your Majesty, until you rescued us. All we know is the remnants that reached us out there. Which is just ‘do not talk about the Empress traitorous creators’.” Aeela looked scared, but diligence to obey an order - and apparently loyalty to her rescuer? - made her speak. 

Creola sighed. Rey didn’t know much about their dynamics, given the time she’d been there, but she knew Creola was a few years older and had become Rey’s trainee lady in waiting before Aeela. Maaru was training Creola, but Creola was training Aeela. And apparently Aeela was talkative despite the fact that there was some rule in place that made it so the ladies could not so freely converse with her. Creola was also a strict follower of the rules - now with their background about being rescued from the outer rim giving context as to why she’s desperate to not anger anyone who could send her back - and so seeing Aeela break them so freely… She didn’t say anything though.

“Creola?” The older girl paused in her steps, turning and bowing her head after being directly addressed. “Tell me everything you know about my parents.”

The older girl stared at the ground in contemplation, almost like she was reviewing some guidelines of behaviour in her head and Rey’s order just broke them. 

“Creola?”

She sighed, turned around and proceeded to guide Rey to her training room while retelling the rumours that reached the outer rim. Apparently while Palpatine was weak after Anakin Skywalker’s attack, he had been strand-casted to create her father who, after growing up in the darkness of Exegol and reaching maturity without demonstrating a bit of Force powers, was only kept alive for the purpose of continuing on the Palpatine lineage. Rumours conflict regarding the meeting of her parents, some saying she was a clone from someone else, a high ranking officer or a sith apprentice that may have been around at the time. Other rumours said that her father had been allowed off planet with the sole purpose of finding a mate and reproducing. 

Regardless, she was born. And she was born on Exegol. 

When asked about what happened afterwards the girl shrugged. As far as Rey knew in her world, her parents escaped and hid her in Jakku. But evidence suggests something different happened here. 

“Creola, please. This is the most interesting thing I’ve heard in the past month. Don’t stop the story there.” She tried to joke a bit to soften the girl, but it didn’t work. At least not on Creola. 

Aeela giggled. “She’s right though. That’s the end of the story that we received in the Outer Rim.”

It was only when they reached the door to the training room that Rey paused.

“How about the rumours you have heard while working here?”

Both girls froze, with their hands on the door. 

After a few back and forth glances between the two girls, Creola sighed and turned around. “With the prospect of an heir, who the late Lord Palpatine was sure was strong with the Force, he made the move to come out of hiding and give power to the First Order in order to weaken the Senate. When you turned five you began your training in the Force, which your parents did not approve of.” The small blonde looked older than her in that moment with the weight of the information that she carried, she sighed heavily. “The story becomes a mess of rumours at this point. Depending on who’s telling it, will dictate whether what your parents did was a crime and it can even change what they did. So I cannot tell you for certain what happened after you began your training.”

Rey let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Tell me regardless.”

She nodded. “Some say they’d attempted to run away before you could become a threat to them and for that the late Lord Palpatine had them executed. Some say you were with them when they were running away, maybe even stealing you from Lord Palpatine. Same results.” She looked away, unable to stare at her mistress, clearly feeling uncomfortable from what she was going to say. “Down in maintenance or with the stormtroopers who had been alive at that point or with the castle’s staff another story gets told: one of two parents who only wanted their daughter to grow up like a normal child despite the shadow that fell over her. According to them, Lord Palpatine heard rumours from the Stormtroopers that the couple were planning to run away with you and before they could…”

Rey nodded. “He had them executed?” 

Aeela shrugged. “Some say he killed them himself. Regardless, they were dead before they could. The kitchen ladies say you were very close to them. And that you asked for weeks where they were before their bodies showed up.” Aeela blinked rapidly, uncomfortably, as though maybe she could blink this away. “You had Stormtroopers who were in charge of guarding you, and they had one last soldier who they were training, the only one of them who is still alive. He says you were told that a high ranking officer had ordered their execution. You were nine? Yes, and-” She cut herself off, unable to finish telling the story, sighing with her discomfort. 

Creola, head bowed, finished, “You executed the officer in a rage. It is said Lord Palpatine was very proud of you. A bit disgruntled though that the next to go were your guards. Regardless, you continued on with your training until at the age of sixteen when the late Lord Palpatine gifted you the infamous Darksaber with which you completed your training by slaying the master. We believe Lord Palpatine would’ve been very proud of that too. Now I beg you, Your Majesty, no more uncomfortable questions.”

Rey was speechless as the ladies opened the doors to the same training room she had seen the day prior, with the same two women and the same boy training saber forms. As soon as she walked in the two ladies hurriedly left, closing the door behind her and the trio turned to her and nodded, the young boy looking excited to see her there.

“Mistress! I did it! Lady Iris says I’ve mastered the Makashi form!” The teenage boy looked to be around thirteen though his excitement made him look eleven. And something very deep inside Rey screamed to protect this boy. 

She smiled, proud of this boy whose name she didn’t know, whose most likely learning the dark side of the force. But his joy and pride is so genuine she could never rip it from him. “That’s great!” 

Sadly she didn’t have anything else to say. She was an impostor in this joyous moment, and she didn’t deserve the pride she felt for this boy’s success. She had contributed nothing to it. 

The youngest of the two women pulled the boy back. “Come on, Kryonus. Mistress Palpatine has not been feeling well lately. We’ll show her next week when the rest come back.” The boy looked disgruntled but followed the redhead to the bench where she proceeded to help him with the small bruise forming on his shoulder. “Besides, don’t you want to have more applause?” 

The boy shrugged.

As Rey proceeded to sit down and prepare herself to meditate she heard the boy ask the redhead why the Mistress was not feeling well, to which she giggled and whispered, “Affairs of the heart.” Rey opened her eyes and saw Kryonus’ eyebrows scrunch together before he whispered back, “She’s in love with someone?”

The brunette with cropped hair and different colored eyes walked towards him and handed him a water canteen that looked like it has seen better days but also looked like it was dearly beloved by its owner if the big branding of ‘KRYONUS’ on the side with messily drawn flames was anything to go by. As Kryonus grabbed the canteen she shrugged. “Sort of,” she replied. “And no, Kryo, it’s not you.” 

The shade of rouge on the teenage boy’s dark skin was something Rey did not expect, but could understand. If she had rescued this boy, like she had rescued Creola and Aeela, then of course he would feel a sort of attachment to her, and with puberty hitting the teen… it made sense. 

Rey paid attention to the group for a bit, watching their cooldown routine before closing her eyes and emptying her mind as much as she could in this new environment. Part of her told her she could trust these women and this teen. The teen adored her, it seemed. And the women were her followers and seemed to respect her. But the sith also had a nasty reputation of betrayals to upend a leader to take their place, so her mind never fully cleared. 

Alright, let's take this moment then to figure out what we know then, shall we? Rey did a little shake of the head and shoulders in her position as she prepared herself to connect as many dots as she should. 

Her father was a genetic copy of Sheev Palpatine who had no Force abilities and as such the only mercy he was provided was that of procreating to keep the family going. Her mother was a wild card with no discernible origin, but it could be easily presumed she was also an unfortunate victim of circumstances. Rey was born in Exegol prior to Palpatine taking control of the First Order, and with confirmation of her Force-sensitivity, Palpatine made his move and escaped hiding with his son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and that army that he, maybe, still had in this universe that he had in the one she came from? From that point on he weakened the Senate while Rey grew of age for training in the arms of her parents. 

Once she reached age and started training, and her parents realized that this wasn’t what they had wanted for her, and as such either tried to escape with her or had only got to planning it before they were killed, or ordered to be killed by her dear old grandfather, who then blamed it on some unfortunate - unfortunate? They are the First Order! - officer who in her childish, Sith encouraged anger, she murdered. At the age of nine. 

She sighed, noticing the sound of the doors opening and a chatty teenager following his two mentors as they left her alone with her thoughts.

Soon after that, Palpatine felt confident enough in his control of Rey and the First Order to dismantle it completely and create the New Empire. From there he continued her training, dismantling the galaxy and gaining control of it, so that when her training could be finished, she could have something to reign upon? How kind of him? Was his plan to die at her hand or did she surprise him? She was sixteen, did he really think a sixteen year old was fit to rule, or did other Rey figure out that Palpatine was using her and decided to ‘finish her training’ … early? By disposing of him when he least expected it? 

He had gifted her a … a darksaber? Despite her training with Luke and Leia, she had never heard of it, but could understand why, if Palpatine felt it was such a great gift for the little Sith he was training. 

So now what questions does this bring?

She sighed and nodded, to no one in particular.

Did she kill Palpatine because that’s what he wanted - like in her world - or because…

Well, there are so many other options. This Rey seems to be kind in her own way, in some ways similar to her, so…

Did she kill him because she knew of what happened to her parents? Or because she realized he was controlling her? Or-

Where is Ben? Or Leia? Or Han? Presumably she has a meeting with Leia later, but how do they fit into this story? 

What happened to the Ben who had Palpatine whispering in his ear?

In her world, her parents were successful in taking away what Palpatine wanted most; a subject strong with the Force, a legacy, he could train. So he put all his efforts into Ben and carved the Kylo out of him. 

Her demise into the dark side… saves Ben from it? She has to fall so he can rise? 

That is presuming he’s even alive, along with Han. 

But according to Hux, Luke is still alive and so is his Jedi training academy. To the point where he has students who have mastered the art. So Ben… is still Ben? 

Okay.

Why did she kill Palpatine? What happened to Ben? Is Han still alive? How... How and why did the New Empire simply stand by and allowed a teenage girl to become Empress? 

When… When did she gain her followers? The two women whose name she still didn’t know, and the many more who’ve yet to come? How did she find/save Kryonus, Aeela and Creola? Has Maaru been her nanny since her parents died or before that? 

Damn it. She had more questions than answers. 

She groaned and opened her eyes to find Aeela sitting cross legged in front of her. Rey, startled, scuttled back, a yelp escaping. Aeela followed. 

“Sorry, Your Majesty. You appeared to be deep in meditation and we didn’t know how to get you out of it, so we just...” The girl rushed out as she stood up, head bowed in apology.

Creola sighed and appeared next to Aeela, bowing and then extending her hand for Rey. “I warned her, she refused to listen. I apologize.”

Rey grabbed the hand and shook her head. “It’s about the meeting right?”

Both girls nodded.

“Am I late?” 

They shook their heads. Creola added, “Maaru warned us that you get distracted in training and to come to warn you about the meeting earlier than we normally would, much more to account for the attire change.”

Rey paused in her nodding. “I’ve got to change clothes?”

Both girls looked confused by the question. “You’ve been training, Your Majesty! You cannot be expected to present yourself like this to the leader of the Resistance.” Creola looked almost insulted. “You’re… dirty, Your Majesty.”

For Rey, who has not had a shower in her other world for nearly a year, who’s gotten used to the sand coating her skin and protecting her from the harsh weather, who’s gotten used to the sweat of her training mixing with the sand, the sweat being the only liquid that touches her skin, for Rey, sitting in a ventilated room for presumably an hour or more without shedding a single sweat, this is not dirty. 

“I’ve been sitting here since you’ve left, I’ve not… even sweated.” 

This took Creola by surprise, but it didn’t bother Aeela. “Regardless, Your Majesty, you must look presentable for the leader of the Resistance, per your orders,” she added, catching up or still thinking about Rey’s questionable memory, or taking advantage of it. “And training garbs are not presentable attire.”

Rey sighed and nodded, motioning for the girls to go ahead and guide her to her chambers once again for another hour or so of washing, primping and irritating hair pulling. She’d never imagined what it would be like to have hair as long as Leia presumably has it, but she is now contemplating having it as short as Han. 

Rey looked at herself in the mirror, appreciative of the simplicity of her dress, and how despite the lack of ridiculously extravagant cuts here and there, it was an elegant look. Today she was wearing a burgundy, floor length dress. The delicate, gathered chiffon of the skirt floats from a scalloped waistline just above her hips, with a tight bodice decorated with thin silk vertical strips of a darker shade. The bodice appeared to be strapless, which is a concept that scares Rey, the idea of having to carry a dress with just your chest, but instead it was held in place with an off shoulder, golden ornament which looked a lot like a diadem for her shoulders, pinned together at the top of her sternum with an ornamental golden heart, from which two strips of burgundy chiffon extended behind her shoulders like an impromptu cape. 

Simple black heels on her feet, a tight, big bun on the top of her head, and a golden tiara finished her look. No jewelry aside from the tiara, burgundy lips to match the dress, and heavy black eyeliner to enhance her eyes and finish her look. 

She felt tight - because of the bodice and the bun - but still more free than the complex attire from yesterday. This was supposed to be elegant, but not to play a pretense of fashion icon or whatever it is the girls were doing yesterday. 

Maaru walked in with a box in hand and an appreciative smile for the girls’ hard work. “Well done. It’s almost like you girls do not need me.”

They giggled and shook their heads, Aeela adding cheerfully, “Even when we become ladies in waiting or even mistresses, we will still need you.”

Maaru shook her head, handing Rey the box. “Why girls, I am too old, I cannot be with you forever. You need to be confident that you can do this alone. So once again, it is almost like you do not need me.”

They nodded and said in unison, “Until the day we do not.” 

Maaru smiled and looked at Rey who looked mildly perturbed. “Independence is an important trait to teach young women.” 

Rey nodded, a small flare of pride blooming in her chest at realizing that despite being left behind with Palpatine, she still had an amazing role model in Maaru, who had her morals straight despite her location and affiliation. Though right now her affiliation was Rey, so…

Maaru gave her a once over. “That pearl will not look good with what you are wearing, how about we leave it in your office for now?”

Rey nodded, following behind the older woman as the trainee ladies in waiting stayed behind to clear up the small mess that they had created while adorning Rey. 

After leaving the box containing the mysterious pearl attached to a chain, which she hopes she’ll be able to wear after today so she can never lose it, underneath what she can only assume is the hilt of that mysterious Darksaber, she followed Maaru to another, much more open and bright conference room, that was decorated with lots of foliage, pillars, small vases and statues, a vast, dark oak table in the middle with comfortable looking, elaborately carved wooden chairs surrounding it, and a vast balcony looking over… something.

She couldn’t get to the balcony, however, as a figure on it moved into view and her heart froze, lungs refusing to work and her brain malfunctioning. 

“Ben.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm. I don't have much to say this time other than next chapter will come out after I finish writing chapter 7. Or when we finish the art. 
> 
> All these chapters have had a lot of work put into them with revisions and stuff, so if you could leave a kudo, or a comment, or share, we'd be really happy!


	4. It was just a nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has a meeting with Leia to negotiate peace.
> 
> Ben is also there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. This is super late.  
> Are there excuses? Yes.  
> 1\. I have EIGHT chapters written. So don't worry, show is gonna keep going.  
> 2\. I was moving to a different country and will you believe it, that requires a lot of time and effort!  
> 3\. The main reason is because my beta and I wanted to make art for you guys. Mine will have to wait until December. It might be my Christmas gift for you guys. Portraits of the Knights of **(Redacted)**. But my beta had been working on a piece completely dedicated to this chapter and we both wanted to have it before posting this. 
> 
> So I hope you can forgive us. 
> 
> Also, I am truly enjoying your comments. Much more those that asked questions that made me grateful my beta asked them before so that I could legit have answers for you guys. Not in the comments, no. But in the story. Wink Wink.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this roller-coaster of an episode. (The chapter I did not want to write and halfway through got really inspire and by the end I was like "Oh god, what have I done?")

“Ben.”

The figure looked over his shoulder at her, appearing to have just been equally as distracted as her, if his face of surprise was anything to go by. Though the expression that followed quickly after was one she was unfortunately very familiar with. Disgust. 

He turned towards her and did a mockery of a bow with a sarcastic smile on his face that reminded her so much of Han, before adding in a tone of completely sarcastic devotion, “Your Majesty.” 

She could almost see the venom dripping from his mouth. 

“Ben.”

“Solo, for you, Your Majesty. We’ve discussed this.”

Her heart hiccuped at his words. So cold, so distant, and if he wasn’t, he was certainly trying to be so. 

And Rey knew well, perfectly well, in her mind that this Ben dislikes her as much as she disliked the Kylo who committed to be a part of the dark side, and for maybe even the same reasons, and that this Rey and Ben don’t have in any way a close relationship and– 

Kriff… is this the ‘boy’ who rejected her? Had she expressed feelings for him and been rejected? Had she made a pass at him and been spurned? Is other Rey just as hopelessly in love with this tall idiot? Wait–are those Jedi robes?!

“You’re a Jedi.” 

He looked down at himself, looking confused by her statement and then looking confused at her. “Did you just realize? I’ve been wearing the same thing or similar for the past decade, Your Majesty, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.” Every time he called her ‘Your Majesty’ it got colder and crueler, like it pained him to do so.

Finally Rey blinked, feeling the burn and the leak of tears that would definitely exasperate the ladies if they were here as she was sure the eyeliner had to be running down her cheek.

He sighed, a hint of regret hidden in it. “Please don’t do this again. At the very least, I’m aware you’re smart enough to understand why this can’t work.”

No words would come to mind and no actions either, so she just stood there, mouth slightly agape, staring at the man she’d come to miss to an aching point and yet could not even get close to now. Her heart beat slowed down, and a strange silence filled her head as she looked at him, standing alive, healthy, beautiful, but most importantly, alive! She could feel on her fingers the weight of his body as he died in her arms. She could feel on her lips the one kiss they had ever shared. She could feel the blood trying to force her heart to beat, the desperation to embrace him, to feel his warm body on hers, his lungs take air, his heart beat. To be completely certain that he was alive. 

That he was real.

He looked slightly ashamed as he shook his head and walked out of the balcony and towards the table to sit one chair away from what was most likely her designated chair at the head of the table, leaving one space for his mother in between.

… Oh, ‘Leia and her guard dog’. Fucking Hux. To be perfectly honest, she’d expected Poe. 

“My mother will be here soon. She sent me ahead.”

She turned around to find him staring down at a holopad, trying to pretend she was not there. Back at the entrance Maaru was patiently waiting by the door, not close enough to hear the depressing words he was saying but not far enough away to miss the black line running down her cheek, if her panicked expression was anything to go by.

She made a move to walk forward, looking as angry as any mother would be, and the little girl inside her rejoiced seeing Maaru mother her. Regardless she shook her head, took a deep breath, wiped her face, and swallowed her pride as she proceeded towards her chair, sitting down with all the elegance of an Empress she could pull out of her ass. 

She noticed Maaru debating whether to follow orders or to torment Ben and, with an exasperated expression from Rey, she sighed and nodded, going back to standing by the door, most likely standing by as her own guard dog, just in case. Ben was the enemy, and her guard around him was basically non-existent, though she should build one for her heart, considering… 

In the painful silence that followed afterwards, she took a series of glances at Ben to see the man he became without Palpatine’s intervention. And he was beautiful. He was Ben. But not her Ben. A different Ben. Just as handsome and striking, but in his own unique way. 

There was no scar crossing his face from their fight. There was no mask, no underlying fear of dying, no insane desire in his eyes to prove a point. There was no suffering in his eyes from years of silent torment inside his mind. He was not the worn down beauty of a man she knew who’s scars weren’t just physical but emotional, and they only made him more complex. No. This man had not been fighting a battle since childhood, or felt abandoned by his family, or betrayed. 

This man had scars whose history she did not know, a glow in his eyes with excitement for something, a wrinkle on his cheeks and eyes from many hours spent smiling or laughing, a faint tan from days spent training with Luke (presumably), a tapping finger that was slightly irritating her, but a cute quirk of slightly mouthing out the words he was reading. This man had been allowed to be a child, a teenager and to grow into a man. His hair was still long, probably still self conscious, but half of it was up in a barely-thought-through ponytail that was most likely done in irritation to keep it out of his eyes. 

She didn’t know this man, but she wanted to. So badly.

“Do you have students? Apprentices?”

He sighed, irritated, without looking at her. “No.”

“Why?” Kriff! Rey! He clearly does not want to talk, shut up! 

She closed her eyes in frustration at herself, not expecting a reply.

He sounded annoyed and disgruntled when he did reply. “Because it is a bit hard to educate children on the ways of the Jedi when I have to follow my mother around everywhere making sure her good spirited hope of successful negotiations doesn’t get her killed.” He paused, waiting for her to look at him. “By that I mean–”

“Mhm.” With every word she felt her spirit dwindling and she could understand why everyone in this palace could be okay with her behaving oddly after the rejection. 

She looked up and found Maaru glaring at him and she slightly smiled. 

After twenty minutes of uncomfortable, cold and distant silence, Leia walked in, looking panicked and embarrassed.

“I apologize, Rey, just… trying to get in contact with someone. I’m truly sorry for being so late.” She rushed to her seat, quick despite her age, and sat down with slightly more elegance than Rey, and she envied it a bit.

And then she realized… Leia has been the only person to call her Rey here. She’d almost begun to wonder if that was her name at all. 

She didn’t know what to do about it. 

“It’s no problem–”

“It is not a problem. Forgetting the contractions thing again, Rey? Royalty does not use ‘commoner’s lazy speech’ such as contractions.” Leia said it like a teacher, like the teacher she had once been to her, and Rey quickly began to wonder what these meetings were really about. 

So it took her a second and an angry look from Ben directed at her to come out of her shock and reply, “Right. I’m–I mean, I am sorry. I have been a bit slow lately. Been told I am not behaving like myself.”

Might as well set a precedent for when she blanks out during this meeting. 

Leia nodded, a knowing smile on her face. “I understand. If you wish we could skip today’s meeting?”

What? … What? Doesn’t Leia want to negotiate peace or freedom or… what? Is Leia playing with her? What?

“Uhm....”

Leia shook her head. “If you do not know what to say…” She looked at her, expecting her to finish the statement.

When she didn’t, Ben did, like an annoyed teenager. “Don’t say anything at all. Uncertainness does not befit a queen.”

Rey looked around, genuinely lost, and desperate to ask someone if Leia was her instructor in how to be an Empress, because… what?

“Why are you telling me this?”

A small pause from Leia and clear confusion in her eyes told her this had been discussed prior. “Like I said, if you are to rule while we come to an agreement, I’d prefer you did it correctly and with grace. People will expect you to be a perfect image of grace, otherwise they will declare you unfit and fight back–”

“I already have people fighting back.” She did not know where this was coming from, but knew it was the right thing to say considering her position.

Leia smiled and nodded. “I think I am mature enough to admit that this is a matter of honor and pride at this point. I know a losing battle when I see it–”

Rey couldn’t believe what she was hearing and accidentally murmured, “I’ve seen you win with less.”

Leia tilted her head slightly, taken aback, before shaking her head. “We had more in our youth than we have now. We had followers, we had weapons, we had ships, things we barely have now–”

“Mom!” The look Ben gave her was that of a child disturbed at his mom ‘oversharing’.

Leia waved him off. “I’m not telling her anything she doesn’t know. We can count the planets that support the Resistance with one hand, and the ships in each planet with two. Luke does not have enough students, and despite all my speeches about democracy and freedom, no planet seems interested in joining the Resistance.” She shrugged, as though this was a given and there was nothing she could do about it. “And however much it pains me to admit this, it is not because they fear you, but respect you.”

One thing that made Rey feel a little better was the fact that Ben also had his mouth hanging in shock at his mother’s words, looking at her like this was the last thing he expected to hear.

“And so, here’s my offer for today. Take it or leave it. I understand you have a wonderful nanny and I don’t want to impose. But I was a princess once, and a member of the Senate as well. And you spent a lot of years focused on Force training–”

“Sith training–” Ben muttered.

“Hush kid, your mother is talking about peace negotiations.” Ben looked away at the glare his mother directed at him. “Politics or the Force, that’s what you said and you chose the Force. So stay in your lane.”

Ben remained quiet and proud.

Leia sighed and turned back to Rey. “As I was saying, many years focused on training as a warrior, preparing for a war that is all but over. I’ve noticed you’ve very little training regarding how to be a queen, an empress. You know battle tactics, you know battle strategies, but I doubt you’re all the knowledgeable about politics and–”

“I just acquired Hoth without lifting a finger. They asked to join the Empire and offered us their jewels and kyber crystals provided we give them the resources the cold planet lacks. No blood was shed, no life was lost. I may not be an expert and I may not have had a lot of ‘princess training’,” she said with contempt, “but I understand politics.” Rey felt wrong saying that, considering what very little she knows she learned from Leia, but she doubts other Rey would have stayed quiet at the implication that she was less than suited for the role.

Leia smiled. She knew about Hoth. Of course she did. Leia nodded. “That’s still battle talk. You’ve conquered a planet. Now how do you keep it? How do you make sure that they later won’t turn their back on you?” 

“Every planet has their representative and if there’s any displeasure, that can be reported to me.”

“And what are you going to do when you can’t appease them?”

The silence that followed satisfied Leia. She sighed. “It’s a slippery slope. I speak from experience when I say, getting the planets to follow you is the easy part. Keeping them is the real challenge. Once they begin to thrive many will seek independent control of their resources and trading control. I want to help you keep them.” Leia smiled like she held all the secrets to the world. “To do so you will not just need to be smart and resourceful, or strong and agile and strong with the force, but also, an image of grace and beauty. Many of the representatives are men who are vain and will expect you to be a goddess that they can follow.”

A small shuffle besides Leia dragged Rey’s attention to Ben who looked entirely uncomfortable with this conversation, a sneer in place, right index finger tapping rapidly on his left hand. 

“And many of the commoners expect a certain behaviour from a woman when hearing the word Empress. Aside from inspiring a bit of fear, due to previous experiences, if they have read any texts, or been told any fantasy stories at all or stories of old reigns, or even stories about far away planets that still have their own monarchies, then they will have expectations about you. They won’t be looking for a warrior now, or a conqueror, they’ll be expecting an Empress.” 

What had she expected with Leia’s visit? Sidestepping negotiations about a war she knew she couldn’t lead.

What had she definitely not expected from Leia’s visit? Rejected romantic partner, Jedi Ben, and getting schooled on her lack of education by Leia. 

Rey nodded, not knowing what else to do. “And so you want to offer your counselling? You want to train me?”

Leia simply smiled and nodded. Rey blinked a few times, baffled by this turn of events and even Ben scoffed, shaking his head and looking away. 

Rey motioned towards Ben. “And what will the Resistance say about admitting defeat and succumbing to the New Empire?”

Leia shrugged. “Negotiations are such, because there’s usually a trade involved. I tell the Resistance to stand down and help you grow and teach you how to keep your Empire… You leave the remaining planets in the hands of the few Resistance members we have left.” 

Rey could almost hear Hux screaming. And in a cruel part of her heart, having seen the good and the bad of war, she knew that if the tables were reversed, Leia would not have allowed the First Order, or the Empire to keep one or two planets for themselves for them to grow in the shadows. And so with a heavy heart she replied, “No.” 

Ben smirked, a knowing scoff escaping him.

Leia blinked in surprise, probably having expected her plan to be fool proof: for Rey to be so whipped by her desire for Ben to not say no to his mother; or for Rey to be just as childishly naive as Leia described her to be. “No? Why?”

Rey shrugged, no amusement in her eyes. “If you were winning and I’d asked the same from you, would you allow it?”

Leia was speechless. And to her pride, even Ben looked impressed. Annoyed, but impressed. 

Rey gave a sad smile. “Like you said, I’ve been trained for war, and had you just offered mentorship, this would have just been politics. But you tried to dupe me out of five planets. You talk about helping me keep control of what I have, but if I bend for you now, no one here will respect me. You’ll always be the ones who got away, and I’ll be the conqueror who couldn’t conquer the Resistance.”

Ben looked up, shoulders tense, eyes flicking between Rey and his mother. 

Leia’s motherly smile was gone and left behind was a look of utter disappointment. “This could end right now–”

“Leia…” She wondered if she had ever addressed Leia by her name here, or ever dared to interrupt her, because both Ben and Leia looked startled, and Rey felt extremely tired. “To be as honest as I can be: I don’t care.” 

She could see in their eyes that they were drawing conclusions as to what she meant by it, none of them good. “I don’t care what happens to Ahch-To, or D’Qar or any of them. If it were up to me, you could keep them if I could have reassurance that the war would end right now and I could die of old age before another one rose up from the ashes. But that’s not what’s going to happen, and you know it.” 

Leia looked away, and pride arose in Rey at getting the upper hand on her mentor.

“I let the Resistance go and let them keep those planets, and then the ones under my reign will start asking why, and questioning why you guys are so special, and contemplating that if they join the Resistance they could be free from the Empire.” Leia refused to look at her, and she knew the woman wouldn’t after what she was going to say, and she wondered if the man would. 

Nearly one year after her war in the other reality she’d been given a cold and painful dose of the truth, and she planned on sharing it. “And a year ago I wouldn't have cared. But I’ve learned something about politics that you are trying to make me overlook.” She waited until at least one of them was blatantly paying attention to her, the one being Ben. “We are both corrupt. Me and my people are trying to maintain order between the planets by controlling trade, the routes and the ways the resources are being managed. You and your people would do the same if we lost. Same shit, different person to blame when it all goes wrong.” 

“We are giving the people a voice–” While not expecting Ben to be the one to speak up, she knew that his statement did not knock down hers. This Rey was not Kylo, or Snoke, or Sheev Palpatine.

“So am I. Every planet speaks for themselves. The only difference between your way and mine, is that instead of waiting years for over 200 or so senators to decide whether to go through with a decision, every request, complaint, law or decree goes through me and gets decided in a few months.” She grimaced, ashamed of her response. “I want you to be right, Leia, I really do. But I know you’re not. Call it intuition, blame it on the force, but I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Senate won’t work. All it will do is make the corruption untraceable.” 

No one said anything for a while. 

Rey watched in her shame as Leia calculated her next move, fingers twiddling with one another, face a perfect example of poker face. Ben was trying to pretend he wasn’t as involved as he really was, that he didn’t care that they have basically lost the war because Rey is not going to give the Resistance a chance to do what they’ve done in her reality and the Resistance does not have enough manpower to continue fighting. But every now and then his eyes would flicker to her before quickly looking away, a sneer making its way to his face before disappearing a few seconds later as he fell in deep thought. 

And then there was Maaru by the door, who looked both proud and disappointed by the way the meeting was going. Rey wondered where she stood regarding the war. If she sided with the Empire, the Resistance or if she was like Hux said, loyal to Rey and would go wherever she went. 

And in their silence Rey wondered why she was defending the Empire. She had fought against it, she didn’t believe in their ideology, or followed their moral compass, and knew about the corruption inside. So why? And as she looked at Ben, and remembered Kylo Ren, she knew why.

She was in control. She knew what was the worst that could happen, regardless of who won. The First Order nearly won last time and she saw what that did to the galaxy, and the Resistance won and she saw how that didn’t stop the bad from spreading or the corrupt from acquiring power. She saw Kylo and Hux reign with a cruel heart, and she saw naive Poe, Finn and Rose get duped into permitting corruption. 

She wasn’t a genius, but she was a little bit ahead of the game. She knew what could happen, she knew both sides of the board, and now, she was controlling ‘the enemy’. The ‘bad’ guys do not have the freedom to do as they please if she’s badder than them and keeps them under her iron fist. If she gains control of everything, she could do something similar to what Leia has always wanted to do, but without the moral compass of Palpatine whispering in her or Kylo’s ear, and the ever growing threat of the First Order following behind the Senate. 

Because there is no Senate, no First Order, no Republic and soon, no Resistance. Just the Empire, with its amalgamation of what Leia wanted the Senate to be and what Kylo wanted the Empire to be. Every planet represents themselves, but they don’t decide anything. Rey is the voice of reason, and she has enough experience to be both cruel and merciful with her decisions. 

The more she thought about it, the less she wanted Leia to win, and that hurt her too. 

“Counter offer.” 

The Organa-Solos looked up, startled.

Rey sighed, quickly contemplating if this was a smart idea and how Hux would react to it, and just as she was about to speak, another great–granted incredibly selfish–idea popped into her head. “War ends now. The New Empire declared the victor.”

Rey gave a pause to make sure they were listening, which got confirmed by Ben’s, “I hope you plan on offering more than that.”

She smiled and shook her head. “Leia Organa-Solo becomes my advisor, your first job being to come up with a list of who can be the Senators for the five planets under your protection. I strongly suggest that the Jedi Master, Luke gets one of them, and that”–Rey paused, internally smiling and wondering how he would react in the other reality to what she was about to do–“Poe Dameron gets one as well. I’ve heard interesting things about the man, and am truly interested to see how he would handle the wellbeing of a planet.”

Leia looked like she was trying not to appear shocked, but her eyebrows were betraying her, and Ben wasn’t even trying to hide it, mouth hanging agape. 

She nodded and continued, “Leia Organa-Solo would stay with me here.” And only for a second did she consider this being a bad idea, but she said it anyway, “Along with Mr. Solo himself.”

Leia’s pretense dropped, as she quickly caught on to what Rey was bargaining. “Ben?”

“I’m not really interested in your husband, Leia. So yes, Ben Organa-Solo. He stays, as my guard dog–”

“As your trophy.”

Rey ignored Leia, having fallen down the hole and knowing there was no other way to go but down, commit to it. “Or bodyguard if you would prefer to be called that–”

“I know you don’t need one,” Ben interrupted, defending himself.

She shrugged. “Fine, call it what it is then, my prize.” She looked at the both of them and with a tone of mockery said, “The Sith Empress with a Jedi Master as her bodyguard. You gotta admit, the people will find that either very interesting, or a great power move of their Empress. They’ll think I tamed you. And they’ll continue to respect me.”

Leia blinked, unconsciously adding, “They will.”

“Right, they will continue to respect me and adore me. And you still have control, albeit not all of it, about what goes on in the galaxy. You will be my right hand woman.”

Ben scoffed and when a minute went by and his mother didn’t say anything, he exclaimed to her exasperated, “You’re not going to say yes, right!?”

In her world, Leia put politics before her son, and despite wanting to win this, she worried what Leia doing the same here would do to Ben. 

“You want me to sell you my son?”

“You would both be here. You'd get to see him every day–You would! Kriff, Leia, fix my grammar later!” The woman looked away, probably not having realized she would flinch every time Rey said a contraction. “Anyway, you’re not– You. Are. Not abandoning your child. Just giving him a position in this new world.”

A pause, and then, “No.”

“Hmm,” Rey replied, with mock disappointment. “And even with letting you keep control of those planets. I really do not want to tell Hux to go ahead with his plan–” 

“I don’t have control of those planets–”

“It is ‘do not’, and yes you do. You choose who the Senators are. They can be your friends and I will not care. What goes on between you and those planets, I will not care. All I care is that those planets, along with every other, believe the Empire won, and the Resistance was conquered. I keep control, you keep those planets, everyone is happy.” 

“And you keep my son.”

She tisked. “Ah, the details.” Deep inside, Rey was sort of enjoying this. But she couldn’t ignore the guilt of negotiating with Ben like a piece of meat.

Leia remained silent for even longer this time. In the meantime, Ben grew anxious, foot tapping on the marble, fingernail tapping on the table, and Rey contemplating throwing him out the window. Leia must be used to this, and she admired her for it. 

Finally she looked at Ben, the regretful look of a mother adorning her face, before looking back at Rey, who didn’t need words. “Counter offer, Luke takes Dantooine, Ben takes Ahch-to.”

“You and Solo stay. Hux doesn’t blow up the remaining planets.” She shrugged. “He’s trigger happy.”

When Leia still refused to agree, Rey grew desperate, remembering that in her reality, Kylo begged her to be his Empress, and here Rey is only asking that he’d be around occasionally and make sure there was no threat to her life. She’s giving him more freedom than Kylo gave her. “I am asking for a bodyguard, not an arranged marriage. And it will not be all the time. I do not need him outside my door making sure I am okay, or following me around all day. Only during special occasions. The rest of the time he can do whatever he wants.”

“Except leave the planet.” Ben added.

“But it is not a marriage proposal.” See, she said that even though she knew neither of them would get her comparison. But it still satisfied her. 

“Fine.”

Ben’s look of horror broke her heart a little, for various reasons, but it dwindled down a bit at his mother’s look of defeat. “Fine, draft a contract, send it to our chambers.”

The woman stood up and didn’t wait for her reply before she left, and after a few seconds of glaring at her, Ben followed. 

Rey sighed. She was greedy, but she was not losing him again. She couldn’t bear that twice. 

Once they were out of sight, Maaru approached her, a faint smile of pity on her face as she sat down next to her. “Want my advice?”

Rey continued looking at the door as she tried to keep her breathing under control, though she felt it slipping, a small sense of panic rising. “Use less contractions?”

“A captive man will not fall in love with his captor.”

“He’s not my prisoner.”

Maaru shrugged. “He feels he is. And that’s enough to make him hate you. He will not become vulnerable enough to open his heart to you. Instead he will go on either the defensive or offensive. But while you ended the war with the Resistance, you’ve started one with the Organa-Solos.” 

Rey closed her eyes, the flaws in her plan making themselves clear now. Ben disliked her before, Leia pitied her, and now they both hate her. “I can’t lose him,” she whispered.

Maaru grimaced as she whispered back, “You sound desperate. Why?”

And how does she explain that to Maaru? That she’s held on to Ben’s body as he died in her arms after giving his life to her. That she watched as he disappeared and left her behind, abandoned once again by everyone she loved and left with nothing but a shirt. That she’s spent nearly a year sleeping alone in an abandoned home crying into that very shirt. 

“I had a bad dream. Really bad. One where he died in my arms after telling me he loved me. One that seemed to go on forever. One that had me pushing on day after day in a world where he ceased existing and everyone was happy about it because they all hated him. One where no one understood my pain and so I had to cry quietly by myself as they all celebrated his death,” she said without pausing for a breath, taking a deep one as she whispered, “It felt unbearably real and painful, and…”

It’s been a while since she’d let herself cry for Ben, but she couldn’t stop the tears that spilled. “And I felt so alone and abandoned.” She looked at Maaru. “I need him. I need him by my side, alive and well. And if for now he has to be unhappy, I don’t care. As long as he’s there. As long as he’s near to me, so that if danger comes I can always protect him. I will not lose him, not again.” 

Maaru nodded and smiled, a tender smile that calmed Rey’s beating heart a bit. “And Leia? You could’ve kept her out.”

“She died too. Gave her life up for her son.” Rey sighed, wanting to speak about everything that had happened and finally finding someone who would listen and not judge. “In a world where she had abandoned her son in her pursuit of politics, she felt the need to make it up to him and for the last time ask for his forgiveness by giving her life up for his sake.” She shook her head. “Despite me wanting him here, I was not going to do to Ben what Leia did to him in that dream. I’m not going to separate them. It may look like it was a choice between him and politics, but at least they are together,” she said with a hopeful tone to her voice. “She abandoned him in that nightmare. He was alone all the time.”

Maaru grabbed her hand and squeezed, Rey finally noticing she was getting defensive in her tone. She swallowed. “He was in the same position I am now and I was in his position.” She sneered as she shook her head. “Always on opposing sides, one good, one bad. One a Sith, one a Jedi. One a warrior for the Resistance, one the leader of the–well, he was the leader of the First Order.” She smiled and looked at Maaru. “He’d asked me to be his Empress. To rule by his side as we brought order to the galaxy.”

Maaru smiled but dropped it when she noticed the bitterness in Rey’s eyes.

“I said no. He was too fractured, too angry, too haunted. He had a vision of the galaxy he couldn’t fulfill.” She shrugged. “I loved him and I had to say no because, it’s what he needed… and I hate myself for it. All it did was make it so that I could never enjoy his smile until it was too late. He died in my arms, and the Force took him, leaving behind nothing but a shirt and me broken on the ground.” She tried not to sob. It was bad enough she was crying in broad daylight, makeup ruined, with the hallway door wide open.

Maaru squeezed again, rubbing her thumb against Rey’s hand. “It was just a nightmare.”

Oh, how badly she wished Maaru was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sigh. Maybe I'll post chapters biweekly. 
> 
> Leave comments and kudos. Share with your friends or on tumblr. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	5. It's a Do-Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has another emotional talk with Maaru and learns how to be an Empress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, you guys seem into this for some reason so I shall continue.   
> But before we start this chapter I need to clarify some things:
> 
> 1\. I... suck at hiding spoilers. I will try to get better at not spoiling what happens next but I get too excited. The good thing is that I still don't know how this story will go, so even I could be wrong with the spoilers.  
> 2\. This one is hard for me but lets get this clear in the wake of the USA elections. This is a fantasy story. Our main character holds her love interest hostage, as did Kylo in the Force Awakens. In this fantasy novel we will explore morally wrong options and uncomfortable subjects. One I did not expect to see in the comments was the idea of exploring an "Empire Wins' universe. This has been clearly tagged as Dark Rey, and the story is mostly told from her perspective. So of course we will have a story that encourages the idea that the Empire could work. Now if that makes you uncomfortable, I'm sorry, but this is fiction and should be consumed as such. And if you still can't accept that, then baby, go to the Reylo tag, there's a million more stories there where you get the Stereotypical 'Democracy Wins' ending.  
> 3\. I... don't do schedules. I do reminders. So a million thanks to everyone who keeps commenting asking when was the next one coming. Because that's the only reason why I posted this. I've been feeling sick this past week and completely forgot about this. So thanks!
> 
> Other than that, I enjoy all your comments, the support and the CCs, and I'm glad that you guys want more.
> 
> Enjoy!  
> [Dress 1](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/95/68/80/956880f9f7d325802c075010daa42bfa.jpg)  
> [Head Piece](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/83/fa/0a/83fa0a4052d916a682f018e6b675f915.jpg)  
> [Dress 2](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/05/c6/24/05c62428760e43ade13bb6ef21c51008.jpg)

Maaru took care of informing Hux and the other officials about the agreement that they had come to, Rey taking the rest of the day off to emotionally recover from opening that wound up again. 

She laid in bed on her side, twirling the pearl with her fingers as Maaru explained that the Imperial Council–which Rey had no idea existed until she mentioned it–had discussed for the rest of the evening about Leia’s position on the Empire, some debating whether this meant she was simply her counselor or if Leia would take the empty spot of Grand Vizier that Rey has had yet to fill. Apparently Hux disagreed with either and made a point to make snide remarks about the Empress being unfit to make these decisions, to which Maaru had to step in and defend Rey. 

Apparently in her anger at Hux she stated that Rey’s intentions were to make Leia the Grand Vizier, and the council trusted Maaru more than Hux regarding the whole matter of ‘that’s what the Empress would’ve wanted’. Rey didn’t really know the difference between counselor and Grand Vizier which Maaru calmly explained to her: as Counselor, Leia would be under the Imperial Council and she would have her ‘counseling’ have to go through them before it got to Rey; as Grand Vizier, Leia would be above the Council and they would need to go through her before getting to Rey. 

Rey gave Maaru a thumb’s up.

Maaru smiled proudly and continued on explaining that after the outraged ranting calmed down regarding the leader of the opposing group taking that position, they gave a few more heated opinions regarding Leia having control of those planets, despite being sworn to secrecy or else be executed for treason to the Empire. But all of them seemed to find it amusingly interesting that Rey took the Solo boy as a war trophy. And after six hours of ranting and arguing about Leia, they’d finally come up with a contract that Rey would have to look through before passing it to Leia. 

Rey groaned and got up, grabbing the holo and heading to her office, with Maaru following behind. “If there’s no Grand Vizier, then who’s the inbetween guy between me and the council?”

Maaru had grown accustomed at this point to Rey seeming out of it, probably her confession about her ‘dream’ making her understand why Rey asked such questions, as Rey described it as feeling so realistic that she felt she had actually been in there for years. So she probably guessed that from her point of view Rey was just disoriented about where she was regarding ‘dream and reality’. She shrugged. “For now it has been me, despite how much Hux hates it. Not officially, but I’m the person closest to you, despite my lack of position in the government.”

Rey paused, opening the door. “What’s Hux’s position again? General?”

“Supreme Commander, he’s in charge of the entire military. Below him are the Joint Chiefs with its five admirals and Captain Phasma–”

“Singling her out?”

“I like her better than her friends. And she’s the only woman in the Joint Chiefs. She’s the only one who will talk to me.” Maaru shrugged, opening the door and pushing Rey inside.

“And after the Joint Chiefs?”

“Admirals, Captains, Generals, Leaders of the subdivisions of the Army, Special Forces, Vehicle Division, Navy and the Marines, Leaders of the groups inside those divisions and then the Soldiers. Oh, and then the students.” 

“Right, the stormtrooper trainees.” She sat down as Maaru went about looking for a chair, picking up and reorganizing anything she saw out of place. “He controls a lot of people.”

Maaru sighed. “Despite his disgusting attitude, he knows what he’s doing. And need I remind you, you control him.”

Rey nodded. “I am Empress. Next in line is the Grand Vizier… then?”

“Empress, Grand Vizier, Supreme Commander, Counselor–”

“But the Imperial Council–”

“Is made up of the Grand Vizier who leads them, the Supreme Commander, and a group of Admirals, Senators and Commanders who you either trust enough to make good decisions or distrust so much you want to keep a close eye on them. So, in reality the Council does not have a position in the hierarchy since they are members from different branches. After Hux is the Counselor, the Imperial Senate and then the Imperial Military.”

She nodded. “So if something happens to me, the next in line to lead the Empire is–”

“If she signs this contract, Leia.” Maaru smiled. “You can see why they’re furious.”

Rey nodded, proceeding to read a contract so convoluted she needed Maaru’s help a few times to understand what she was reading. Finally, after changing a few small traps she was sure Hux had added in, she handed it to Maaru and nodded. “Can I sleep now?”

“You have to eat dinner.”

Rey groaned.

Maaru shrugged. “How about we make this as dramatic as it can be?”

“How so?”

An hour later she found herself wearing another extravagant gown in colors she suspected were supposed to encourage the idea that war is over. It was a stunning, floor length ensemble. A simple, long sleeved, white silk dress with a high neckline worn beneath a champagne over-frock in a heavy silk fabric. The over-frock had a high collar and floor length panels hanging from the shoulders emulating sleeves. It fastened at the waste, opening out to reveal the white skirt of the dress underneath. Above the waist, each side of the upper part of the over-frock was connected by a complex set of fastenings reaching across her chest that she couldn't explain to you if she tried, but found the parallel lines fascinating. An ornate, dark gold belt sat round her waist, the design matching the floral embroidery patterns that embellished the edging of the over-frock.

Soft makeup was put on her, looking almost like she had none on at all, but she knew very well there was some. Her hair was mostly let down, except for two strips on either side of her head that had been pulled back and pinned at the back of her head by the most over the top headdress she had seen yet and she couldn’t believe it didn’t weigh that much. On the pin sat a golden star surrounded by a ring, from which extended an explosion of stars that haloed around her head. 

She felt like she should be put up for decoration, because she was a doll. 

She looked like the Empress of the galaxy. 

Well, to be honest, she preferred that over the joke-ish comparison that Aeela gave her of looking like a bride. That wound was still too fresh. 

Now to be really honest, she wanted to sleep. She knew she was hungry but she still wanted to sleep and ignore the hunger, the glaring and the uncomfortable silence she was dealing with right now as she sat, head of the table, surrounded by the infamous Imperial Council and, at the opposite end of the table, Leia and Ben, the latter of which who looked like he was ready to jump off the highest building for being forced into an elaborate costume of his own. 

Instead of the half ponytail, he now had two braids at the top of his head that lead to a braided bun, the rest of his hair still falling down and covering his ears and neck. The grayish tux looks exquisite with his skin tone and matches his mother’s evening gown, which Rey envied, was much simpler than hers, with a simple empire silhouette and white lace on the edges. The bun she wore was complex, but Rey could understand why. It’s not easy to put long hair in a bun. 

She turned towards Maaru, who stood a few feet away in between two servers, and glared at her for, while successfully, annoyingly arranging this impromptu dinner so quickly. 

Rey sighed and looked back at the still expectant guests, and addressed Leia. “So, I imagine you have had a chance to look at the Terms of Surrender by now. Will this be a celebratory dinner or an even more uncomfortable one?” 

Hux was breathing a little too loudly besides her and she desperately wanted to punch him as she awaited quietly for Leia’s response. The man had been told to arrive as quickly as possible for the dinner and Rey kind of understood then why he didn’t officially leave the atmosphere when the Resistance visited, but nevertheless gave them space to do the negotiations. 

Leia nodded. “I will admit, some things still surprised me, but… We surrender.” 

The council knew that their surrender still had a win hidden inside of it, but the servants didn’t and the council had been waiting to hear this for years. So, regardless, many of them cheered, grabbing their glasses and clinking them with one another in their victory. 

Rey sighed, noticing Leia do the same. Rey took her glass of odd burgundy colored liquid and drank it, trying as much as she could to disguise her shock and disgust at the foreign flavor. So this is wine. She’d rather they’d bring back her glass of water. 

She did her best to ignore everyone at the table as she went about eating her meal, and it appeared she was radiating a ‘don’t kriff with me’ vibe, because aside from Hux, no one dared to look towards her or address her in their celebration. 

But Hux did.

He leaned a bit closer to her and whispered, “Did we really win?”

Rey looked at him, her expression as dry as the desert plane she grew up in, and whispered back, “Not yet.”

She looked towards Ben. “Not yet.” She sighed, and went back to her meal, nodding towards Hux. “Write a statement for the people about the war ending. We shall release it in two days. Give them,”–she motioned towards Leia and Ben“a chance to send their side of the story to those they trust in the Resistance first. Plus, I don’t want to release that statement without the list of new Senators. So be nice, and talk to Leia about who she will be choosing to take those roles.”

“Being nice is not my thing. It’s yours. Like you said once, bad cop, good cop,” he muttered in distaste.

Rey shrugged. “Try it for a day. It won’t kill you.” 

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I need a break from what I went through today. And I’m already mad at you. If you don’t want me to get all excited with the positions and replace you for somebody who won’t bitch at me when I give them an order, do as you're told.” A part of her laughed at Hux’s baffled expression as he nodded and shut up. 

“You know Hux,” she began. He looked up, now annoyed. “Part of me wants to get along with you. Can you stop being a kriffing prick for a day, so I can see if that could ever work out?” Her smile was sarcastic, and Rey knew he knew it too, but for the outsider, she had a very happy and kind smile on her face.

Hux rolled his eyes and went back to his food. 

She sighed and reached toward her chest, where she knew the pearl was hidden. How did that pearl do this? How could a tiny pearl… Well, to be honest, Rey is still unsure of what happened. Did she travel to a different universe? Did–…

_Luke sighed. “If you could have anything you ever wanted, what would that be?”_

_“Do you want him to come back to life?”_

_Rey looked up, her eyes immediately connecting to her Master as the lesson neared its end. She slowly nodded._

_Luke nodded. “That pearl might be able to help you with it.”_

“R’iia’s shorts!!”

Everyone quieted down and stared at Rey, baffled by her outburst. She shook her head and stood up, draggin Maaru along with her, deciding that she trusted Maaru enough to tell her about this. 

Finding the ballroom, Rey dragged her towards the alcove, locked the door behind them and asked, “Do you trust that no one is listening to us here?”

Maaru was shocked and confused but nodded. “This is your private alcove, if anyone is somehow hiding somewhere in here…” She made a neck slashing motion and shrugged. 

Rey nodded and took a deep breath. “I lied.”

She blinked. “About what exactly?”

“I didn’t dream it. The whole me being a part of the Resistance, and Ben dying in my arms, I didn’t dream it.” A small flicker of recognition appeared in Maaru’s eyes, but she appeared to be doing everything possible to reject it, so Rey confirmed it. “I lived it.” 

Maaru shook her head. “No you didn’t–”

Rey pulled out the necklace, shoving the pearl in her direction. “I found this, in a cave, in Tatooine, two days ago. Have I left this castle during that time?”

Maaru didn’t know what to do or say, so she shook her head.

“I don’t know how I got here, but I’m not the girl you raised.” 

The poor woman blinked, trying to make sense of what Rey was saying. “Ok… Ok, ok… ok. So according to you, you grew up in some… place and became a member of the Resistance, fought the First Order, which was being lead by the Resistance’s Leader’s son, Ben Organa-Solo, who asked you to be his Empress, which you rejected only for him to… fall in battle protecting you? And he died in your arms? And you’ve been living alone in–... In Tatooine? Where you found that pearl that somehow brought you here?”

Okay, that sounded off in every way possible, but close to the truth. “Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa died in that reality too.” Maaru scoffed, but Rey continued, “Luke had become a Force Ghost. He visited me before I came here. When I asked him about the pearl he simply asked me what did I want more than anything in the world…” Rey looked at Maaru. “I remember saying a family, so I guess in a way I got that with you. But…”

She could almost feel the heat of the Tatooine suns as she’d thought about what she wanted more than anything in the world before joining BB8 for saber training, holding that damn pearl in her hand. “But more than that, I’d wished that… that Palpatine had not managed to get his hands on Ben, that Palpatine hadn’t poisoned his mind and turned him to the Dark Side. That Ben had been allowed to just be Ben. Because him joining the Dark Side had been his downfall.” She looked around and laughed.

“I didn’t think we’d be trading places. I didn't think that, for Palpatine to leave Ben alone, it would only be because he had me to use instead.” Her laugh became cruel and mocking, at herself. “And he karking warned me!”

Maaru looked scared for Rey.

“I dreamt about him, that very night. Ben. Kylo Ren, his dark side persona. Both of them, taking me to that cave, making me grab that pearl before telling me to be careful what I wish for. I wished for this. He’s free from Palpatine, but I have to carry the legacy.”

Maaru didn’t say anything and Rey continued on with her frustration regarding her stupidly playing with cosmic forces.

“Krif! What–d–does this grant wishes? … Yes it kriffing does.” Suddenly she remembered how Luke told her this was dangerous in the wrong hands and how the Force wanted to see if she had the right ones. “Master Luke told me this was dangerous. Dangerous in the wrong hands.”

She sat down, suddenly so tired she wanted to cry and curl up on the floor. “Maaru?”

Maaru turned towards her, her face serene, controlled, and slightly nervous. “Yes?”

Fear entered Rey for a moment, thinking she’d done the wrong thing telling Maaru. Still she asked, “Do you think I am ‘the wrong hands’?”

Maaru was quiet for long enough to make Rey uncomfortable to the point of wanting to vomit, before she whispered, “I don’t know. Like you said, you’re not the girl I raised. All I know about you is what you’ve told me and what I’ve experienced in the past few days.”

Rey nodded, and after a minute she sighed. “Would you have preferred I’d kept you in the dark?”

She shook her head as though mad with this bit of information then she added, “If anything I’m surprised. My Rey wouldn’t have told me. She likes keeping secrets. I think she loves me, but a part of her has been trained to not trust anyone, so she’s struggling with that.” Maaru sighed and sat down next to Rey, looking like the day was finally wearing her down. “So… so you wished to save Ben Solo from your grandfather and ended… ended up switching places with a version of you who lives in a universe where… that happened?”

Rey shrugged. “The Force doesn’t tell me everything. Hell, it barely tells me anything at all.”

Maaru nodded and, like she’d been reminded of something, she suddenly asked, “And what were you in that other world?”

“What do you mean? A Jedi? A Resistance member?”

“You have no manners.”

“Oh.” Rey nodded. “Yeah, in my world, my parents managed to escape and hid me in the desert planet Jakku. They disappeared shortly after and I was left alone for over a decade, scavenging for anything I could trade for food and water. Before the Resistance found me and saved me in a way.”

“The Resistance just so happened to find the granddaughter of Palpatine on a desert planet?” Maaru probably doesn’t realize how defensive she sounds, implying that the Resistance tracked her down to use her against her grandfather. Rey smiled tenderly at her.

“An ex-stormtrooper escaped the First Order with a captured member of the Resistance. They crashed on my planet. It was the stormtrooper who found me, along with a BB8 unit who was loyal to the other guy–Poe Dameron–you know him?”

Maaru nodded.

“His BB8 droid found me, then the stormtrooper, we escaped Jakku before the First Order could kill us, and then Ben–Kylo–found us and took me captive. I discovered I was Force-sensitive when he tried to invade my mind. He left me tied up in a room, I escaped, found the stormtrooper, and together we found Han Solo, just in time to watch Ben kill his own father.” Rey felt a small sense of satisfaction at hearing Maaru gasp. “Chewbacca was mad, I was distraught because I’d begun to see Han as a father figure, the stormtrooper and I fought Ben, he nearly killed Finn–the stormtrooper. I barely made it through that fight… We, me and Finn, barely escaped.” 

She took a deep breath. “Until the–... The bond!” How could she forget?! And despite remembering it now, Rey realised she couldn’t feel anything. No locked doors, no open passageways to each other's minds, but in a bittersweet relief, no gaping hole in her soul either. Either the bond has not opened yet, or there’s no bond, but at the very least it's not broken. “I don’t feel it.” She groaned then brushed her frustration aside. “Whatever, a problem for later. Anyway, we have this bond, where our souls are bonded to one another–”

“Like soulmates?” Maaru had a tone of mockery, and Rey knew just how ridiculous it sounded. But it was the cold, and painful truth.

“Palpatine called it a dyad.”

Maaru blinked. “... That’s just another word for ‘pair’. Like the word ‘duo’.”

Rey gave a breathy laugh and nodded. “A Force dyad then. Two bodies, one in the Force. Our minds are connected, as are our souls. We were made to complete each other, to bring balance to the Force.” Rey nodded, remembering what Luke said. “Master Luke said that the Force did not seem satisfied with the death of Ben Solo. Like there was more he was meant to do.”

Maaru sighed and leaned back. “So the mystical cosmic figure that is the Force, gave you a wish-granting pearl because it’s mad that Ben Solo died before he was supposed to? Or because you two didn’t fulfill your purpose as a dyad?”

Despite Maaru’s disbelief, it made sense. “Yes… It’s a do-over.”

The older woman nodded. “Except you now have to do it from the other’s point of view.”

… “Krif, do I actually have to learn the Dark Side of the Force?”

A stunned silence followed before both women, after what’s been going on and the exhaustion from the events that had transpired that day, suddenly overcome and delirious, burst out laughing. 

After a while Maaru sighed. “Ah, let's figure that out tomorrow. This day has been exhausting enough, and I didn’t get dumped by my soulmate.” 

“Oh, don’t remind me.” Rey stood up, feeling the dress trying to drag her down. “Do I have to go back to dinner?”

Maaru shook her head. “I’m sure by now many are off their trolley, getting greedy with the wine. Just go to bed. I’ll make sure Leia and Solo have returned to their chambers safe.” 

Rey nodded and went ahead. 

Safe in her chambers, rid of her clothes, lying on her bed in just her underwear, she thought back on what Maaru said.

Her Rey wouldn’t have told her. Despite having similar moral compasses, the other Rey is even more secluded and keeps everything closer to her chest than she does… She wondered why for a second and then remembered where her counterpart grew up, who she grew up with and what happened in her youth.

She would also have doubts about her nanny if she grew up in a place where her grandfather killed her parents to keep her hostage. 

Despite that, she trusts Maaru. Unless she wakes up dead tomorrow, or ordered for execution for impersonating the Empress. In which case, damn Maaru. 

That is _if_ she wakes up here again tomorrow. 

Despite her tiredness, and her eagerness to see where she would wake up tomorrow, the anxiety kept her awake until past midnight, when her body finally gave up the fight. 

She was in the forest. That snow covered forest of Starkiller Base. 

She was running… no. Chasing. 

She could see movement in the shadows, lights in her peripherals; however, despite how much she ran, she never found what she was looking for. 

So when Maaru woke her up for breakfast, she was slightly annoyed. 

Rey groaned, sitting down to a meat platter. “What do I have to do today?” 

Maaru sighed, serving her juice as the girls left the room. “Originally there was a meeting scheduled with the Council to do a briefing regarding the negotiation meetings, but that has been resolved. Then a meeting with Hux and the leaders of the Military, but you sent Hux to deal with the Resistance’s surrender, and we can’t have the meeting without the Supreme Commander. In the afternoon you would be left alone to go through all the requests and queries that the council deemed worthy of your attention. I think there’s a reformation you might be interested in.” She took a deep breath and sat down next to her, still looking a bit tired. “But we are not going to be doing that today.”

“Why not? Isn’t it my job to keep order and pass laws?”

“Yes, but you also should know what you’re doing. And a scavenger doesn’t know how to rule.” Another deep breath and a nod. “You’re going to be having Empress school today. A crash course, per say. Starting with Etiquette, Speech, Posture and Behaviour. Then a quick History class, as much Politics as I can give you, some basic Geography and finally, some lessons on things you should know but think it doesn’t matter, like fashion, cuisine, entertainment and such.”

Rey blinked. “... What?”

Maaru shrugged. “The rest should be covered by Leia, as she already assumes you're naive when it comes to politics. That works in your favor.”

Rey bitterly nodded, before looking down at her plate. “Do classes start now?” She added, hoping the answer was no.

Sadly, it wasn’t.

Now, she could describe to you in great detail what she spent the entire day doing, give you a list of the words she wasn’t permitted to say (kriffing curse words? She can’t say kriff? This kriffing sucks!) tell you how you’re supposed to eat; how you’re supposed to walk, stand, smile, wave, sit, sneeze; all of that crap. She could waste your time telling you the endless information Maaru gave her about the crown jewels, the coronation dresses, the special event dresses (what she’d wore the night prior was one of those, apparently), the gala dresses, the dresses she wears because they’ve been gifted to her by a known fashion designer and she has to show gratitude for them, the jewels the Daaso has gifted her because apparently he likes to spoil her by dressing her up like a doll, the jewels that other senators have gifted her to buy a favor and she should remember to thank them for them. Or the other endless lists of food names she should remember, or the celebrities she should know. 

She could give you the small rundown Maaru gave her regarding the politics, which she guessed could be summed up to: at the beginning people caved because they feared her due to her killing her grandfather before her training finished, or simply because she killed her grandfather, or because she’d commited her first murder at nine; then word got around about how she ruled as Empress and planets began to request to join on their own. But none of that was as important as when Maaru slipped and answered a question that had been bothering her since training yesterday.

Other Rey didn’t know Palpatine was responsible for her parents death… until the age of fifteen. Palpatine had let it slip. And Rey had been smart enough to wait until his guard dropped, and he’d gifted her that saber a year later in reward for her loyalty, before killing him. 

He hadn’t planned on her killing him so soon. 

And whatever Other Rey was doing as Empress, it was to spite the memory of her grandfather and honor the memory of her parents, who’d died for her.

This satisfied her. 

An hour past dinner with Maaru, who kept on rambling about Hux and everything she felt Rey needed to know about how he is in this world, she found herself free of her lessons, though Maaru did say ‘for now’, exploring the palace that she now had to call home. 

From what she had seen so far there were four floors and a basement where storage, the servants quarter and the kitchens were. They were all baffled to see her there. 

She just shrugged and continued on walking. And for a second she felt like she was a dream, walking by in a floor length, golden, long sleeved robe dress, feeling more at home in the colors she’d grown up wearing, but still regal in the lace patterned materials and the expensive sheer fabrics. Even her wide, brown belt looked more expensive than anything she’d ever worn, and yet, there was an odd sense of comfort in the simplicity and familiarity. Maaru, wanting to keep her in her comfort zone–however small that may be in this universe–just tied her hair up in a ‘messy’ bun–that still took half an hour to do!–with a golden pin that had flowers hanging from a tin chain. 

She still looked regal, while also being comfortable. So comfortable… She smiled to herself as servants passed by, hopefully completely unaware that she was barefoot after twenty minutes of arguing about it with Maaru. Though she’s sure the servants probably would’ve appreciated the clanking of her heels as a warning before she just opened the doors to the kitchen, curious to see what was behind them. 

And Rey was curious to know what they must’ve thought as she simply took one quick look around, nodded and left, continuing on on her mission to learn how to travel her palace on her own. 

There were three kitchens in the underground level, two storage rooms that had stairs going even further down, so this place went even deeper somehow, and just a lot of servants’ quarters. Rey noticed children running around in the hallways, some playing in their rooms, which worried her greatly. Do these children work here as well? Are they just another type of slave? She would have to ask Maaru about it later. 

Exploring the main floor she noticed that wherever there was a kitchen below, there was a vast dining room above, which told Rey… There are secret passageways. And that excited her. To be fair, two dining rooms, because one of the kitchens connected to the ballroom and her alcove, but only that main floor ballroom, because she later found another ballroom on the second floor. 

She also, after much struggle, managed to find the foyer, an extravagant and big foyer that led to the central inner garden from which many paths extended, but most importantly, the main entrance, with giant double doors made of a white metal with elaborate carving on them. She sighed and turned around, finding security rooms, the training room, conference rooms, the cleaning station and a huge room with pillars and curtains and her throne. The room was dark in the late afternoon, as clearly there was no use for it at the moment, but there were two floor to ceiling windows behind the throne, centering it. The throne, she noticed in the darkness, stood on a dais, made of black stones and embedded with jewels and gold. _Very thematic!_ Rey thought bitterly. 

She shook her head and walked away, wanting to ignore that small detail for now. 

On the second floor she found many locked doors, some of which she could hear voices coming from, some of which she couldn’t. She found all the conference rooms – Four including the one below!, another security room, a room full of guards on their break, who also panicked when they saw her, and another training room, this one smaller than the one she had been in already. 

The third floor had the security room –which she guessed there was one per floor– along with the guard room, locked doors, and some rooms which she knew had to do with tech and military, but had no idea about what specifically. 

And finally the fourth floor, which she quickly came to the conclusion was for the private guest/family rooms, because besides the security and guard’s room, nearly every door was locked. There were less doors here too, so the rooms were big, hers being the biggest at the back of the palace, overlooking the maze of gardens she saw from one of the windows. Maybe those locked doors on the floors below are rooms for less… less higher tier employees? Because Rey could make a quick guess that visiting Senators and the most important people were the only ones allowed to share the floor with the Empress. 

At one of the windows overlooking the front courtyard she found Leia. She’d hoped the ruffling of her skirts would alert the woman to the fact she was not alone, but regardless the woman jumped when Rey spoke. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Once Leia calmed down she shook her head. “I’m okay.” She turned back towards the courtyard. “Just waiting for the reply from the Resistance. I don’t think I can have that list ready by tomorrow.”

Rey nodded. “I guess I misspoke, I meant the day after tomorrow. That’s when I planned the announcement–”

“Why so quickly?” Leia’s expression spoke of the sparkling beginning of distrust. She did not like that Rey was rushing her, cornering her. 

“I do not want to give the Resistance a chance to plan something, an attack. And I just want this to be over. It’s as simple as that.” She’d noticed that while they weren’t whispering, their tone was only a bit above it. The night was silent to favor them.

Leia sighed and looked back out the window.

“That’s not what worries you right now.”

“That is not.”

Rey nodded, sighing at the correction but accepting it. “Is it Ben?”

She shook her head.

“Han?”

The woman blinked, stayed quiet for a few seconds before sighing heavily. “Despite never being there, he’d always at least reply to my messages. I can tolerate him needing his space, as long as I know he’s alive.” 

Rey guessed this was something she was supposed to know, since the woman was addressing it as a given, and in a way, she did know. Han also left his family behind in her world. It appears though, despite the distance, he keeps in contact… except... “He hasn’t replied?” 

“He’s never been silent for this long.” Leia groaned and shook her head. “It just feels like things are piling up on me.”

“And I am guessing being Vizier is not going to make that any easier.” She smiled, trying to comfort the woman.

“Yeah, about that.” Leia turned to Rey, looking confused. “Vizier? That’s pretty high in the hierarchy. The highest you could go, after you. Why would you give me that?”

Rey shrugged. “Because you are right. I know very little about politics. But I do know that if you were simply a counselor I would not hear anything from you. Hux would not allow it. So I had to give you a position above him, where your counseling would not have to go through him. It turns out Grand Vizier is that position. Also, Maaru made that decision for me. So thank her.”

Leia nodded, an expression of shock on her face. “The nanny just decided who’d be regent if you’d died?” 

“Her name is Maaru and yes. She is smarter than you would think. And she knows what I would like, so when she went to deliver the news to the council and they began asking what exactly your position would be, she declared you Vizier before Hux could do anything about it. And I am glad. Because she was right. That is what I would have chosen.” 

Leia was silent, taking it all in. 

After a while she nodded. “And what is my son’s place in this, exactly?”

“I’m unsure about that, still. I need a bit more time to think about it.”

The woman blinked and shook her head, looking back out the window. “You are very possessive about my son. He’s his own person, very independent. If you wish to garner his attention, trapping him won’t do it.”

“I know.” Rey looked out the window bitterly, not just remembering what she’d done, but what happened in the other world. “But I also know worse things could happen. I know how easy it is to lose something. I have lost a lot. So when I see an opportunity to grab something I want, something I need,” she turned to look at the woman, determination in her eyes, “I will hold on to it like my own life depended on it. So my apologies, but he is staying, whether he wants to or not.” 

Having nothing else to say, and not wanting to hear Leia trying to convince her otherwise, she left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks to my wonderful beta I_Feel_It_Too, thanks for the comments and kudos and bookmarks and subscriptions and I hope to see more!


	6. Empress Lessons Pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone prepares themselves for the announcement of a lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excuse time: I'm moving and have been going to that process for a while. All while also going through what I can only call seasonal depression? I've lost the desire to write recently, but good news is I've gained back the desire to read! ... Regardless this story still excites me and I will do my darn best to finish it.
> 
> I had mentioned making portraits for all the Knights, unfortunately I had only finished one before I became unable to use my drawing tool and I currently don't have enough time to use it (that is if it's not broken after my father dropped it). I will try to share soon (maybe update?) the portraits so you get a visual of the Knights my brain created.
> 
> Other than that, ENJOY!
> 
> [Dress](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b2/e9/aa/b2e9aaf2b1f0712bfe3f323eecf4235f.jpg)   
>  [Crown](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a9/92/b6/a992b6603539ddaf8a94c09be9d1db27.jpg)   
>  [Hairstyle](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9e/10/df/9e10dfff1b26ad7d3ab491eff3c38df8.jpg)

The next morning found her in that meeting with Hux and the Chiefs who’d spent a good hour arguing about how to use the kyber crystals that were coming in from Hoth. And after ignoring them for the latter half of that argument, it all ended with them turning towards her, expecting her to tell them which mass weapon they could use it on, only for her to tell them, “No weapon. I want those crystals on reserve for now. For now!” she repeated as Hux began to open his mouth. “I have a student who will need one to make a saber later. Instead I want you to take stock of how much is coming in and how much each weapon requires. I would like to always have a reserve, just in case something happens to our sabers or if I get more students.” 

Hux groaned. “What if there’s an attack?”

“Well I would hope that we are prepared for one now, regardless of the crystals that are coming in from Hoth.” Rey turned to look at everyone, clear disappointment on her face. “Are you telling me that if the Resistance attacked now we would lose? That we are in desperate need of resources? Do we not have what we need?”

Everyone remained quiet at the reprimand, and when her glaring finally irritated Hux, he responded, “We are ready for an attack if it were to happen, it is just–”

“That you are greedy. You want it all for you.” Rey nodded. “Well… learn to share. Every Kyber crystal is going on reserve until you can provide me with a detailed business plan regarding how you plan on using them and still leave enough behind for everyone who can use the Force. End of meeting.”

Every single time she did this, she felt powerful and amazing. She couldn’t believe she was getting away with it, and she felt extremely proud of herself regarding how she was using the power she’d been granted. 

Halfway down the corridor she realized someone was following her. She turned around to find the infamous Phasma a few feet away, who stopped at her notice. “Anything I can help you with?”

“Hux has informed me that the Resistance Leader’s son is supposed to be your guard. I have a few questions about that, seeing as dictating who is an appropriate soldier to protect our Empress is my job. And you have always rejected the idea of having the Empress’s Guards.” The tall woman walked towards her, stopping a few inches away to whisper, “I don’t believe letting emotions pick your security is a good idea, Your Majesty.”

Mm… The woman is worried for her… Surprising. 

Rey sighed. “Follow me.” 

Once the women found themselves on a balcony on the second floor, overlooking young stormtroopers training in hand to hand combat, Rey turned towards her. “There is a stormtrooper designated FN-2187. Is he here in the palace?”

Phasma was silent behind the mask before shaking her head. “He is on Starkiller Base.”

Hmm, the base still exists...

Rey nodded. “Bring him. I want him here by the end of the week. You will educate him on the matter regarding the protection of the Empress, along with the young Solo. And after you’ve given them both instruction, you will schedule a meeting for the three of us. I want Solo and the stormtrooper to be my guards.”

“We’ve had problems with that sto–”

“I am aware. I believe I know how to solve it.” Rey shrugged and smiled. “If you want, say the Force told me what to do. Or call it intuition. But it will be those two who are my guards. So if you are really worried about me, you have my permission to sit both of them down and bore the shit out of them regarding what is required to properly ensure the Empress’s safety.”

After a while of silent staring, Phasma nodded. “And if the young Solo rejects–”

“He has no option. Remind him of that.” 

Phasma nodded quicker this time, allowing Rey to realize just how cold and cruel that sounded. 

Rey sighed. “Well, anything else?”

Phasma shook her head, Rey nodded and both women went their way.

Simple situations solved with simple conversations. Rey could see the appeal of Phasma. 

Taking a trip down to the first floor, she found Maaru, who’d she latched on to, whispering more questions regarding this place. 

“Do I have Force students?”

Maaru nodded. “One for now, is what you last told me, seeing as this was new territory for you.”

“And the ladies training him?”

“Iris and Lyra? They are the Knights of-”

“I have knights!?” she asked shocked, not expecting that to be a given in both universes, but… Well, everyone has told her that she has refused personal security and is believed to be well protected… Of course she has Knights.

“Yes,” Maaru finished, displeased with the interruption. “Knights of Palpatine. You’ve only seen the two eldest, Iris and Lyra, seeing as the other four are out searching for possibly any other Force-sensitives beings. At least, that’s what you told me. That you had a feeling there was another one out there and you wanted to find them before the Jedis did.”

Rey nodded. “Six in total?”

“The little boy is being trained to join them.” Maaru shrugged.

“Okay,” Rey sighed, nodding as she prepared herself for it, “tell me everything you know about them.”

It took the entire walk down to the training room, and a little bit of stalling outside for Maaru to give her a rundown of her Knights.

Iris was a 34-year-old redheaded female, who has been with her since before the murder of her parents. Maaru is sure Iris was the one to tell other Rey that Palpatine murdered her parents, but neither woman admitted to it. Just like Maaru, the woman has a sort of motherly attachment to Rey, and was actually the one who trained her in terms of combat before and after Palpatine died. Loyal to Rey and second-in-command regarding the Knights. Has a thin scar from lip to ear from the first time Rey and her fought with real sabers. Other Rey cried about it for a week. 

Lyra, 29, female, chestnut brown hair cropped so short it was barely there. Was found by Iris and Rey during her search for Rey’s kyber crystal; rescued from the First Order/Empire as they were going to execute her for attempting to steal from them. No one listened to Iris when she said they couldn’t kill her, but the world stood still when twelve-year-old Rey screamed at the top of her lungs that if they killed Lyra she would kill them for treason. By the time they had rescued her she had been injured by a Stormtrooper, who had nearly sliced her head open, but instead left her blind in her right eye. Has incredible control of the Force, but lacks in hand to hand combat.

Moris, who identified as non-binary and liked to joke that their gender was either Sith or Knight whenever asked by teenage Rey, was 27 years old, had chestnut brown hair down to their shoulder, looked entirely gender neutral - thus all the asking from teenage Rey - and was the one who designed how their uniform would look so that it would be indiscernible who was under it - male, female, child or adult - which had helped them during many fights. Was originally a servant’s child, but after their mother was killed in an attack by the Resistance on the ship they were in, they accidentally saved all the other servants and children by using the Force, and as such Palpatine recruited them to be another student with Rey. Favored long distance weapons but was great with a saber.

Daler, originally born female, now male, was a 24-year-old ginger, with skin the color of wet sand, who has a scar going from his left eyebrow to the back of his head, which he uses to dictate where to part his hair, though he wears it mostly in tight dutch braids which he ties in a bun at the back. Maaru joked that that’s his identifier. Not the huge scar across his head, the nearly permanent braid bun. He was originally a student of Luke’s, who escaped after being horribly bullied for showing an inclination towards the dark side, and possibly their gender identity, Maaru added. Won’t tell anyone how he got his scar, and has great combat skills, but poor Force skills. Apparently Palpatine mentioned he was fractionated with the Force, inclining towards both sides, and such is the reason why he can’t control either. Part of Rey could understand his struggle.

Hera was a twenty year old female with long black hair and foggy white eyes after her village was attacked by raiders, causing a fiery explosion near her that left her completely blind. Lyra found her in the Force while they were searching for Kyber crystals. Has an impressive control of the Force, to the point of being able to use it to move about on her own and even fight hand-to-hand combat.

Koe was a 17-year-old male, who was a mix of Human and Togruta, with blue skin and pale blue eyes. His father died in battle, his mother died of illness, and the village, not comfortable with the idea of a mix-breed, abandoned him at the age of seven. Daler found him on an Empire bureaucratic visit to Shili a year later and as such, the boy has an extreme attachment to Daler. However much Daler denies it, he appreciates the little brother that follows him around. 

And then there was Kryonus. The son of a servant woman who’d died after getting raped by an officer. Kryonus, then nine, was too young and angry to control his power and nearly destroyed the war room in which he found them. Kryonus was taken to a cell for property damage, his mother was disposed of, and Rey was called by her knights to come to the planet when they realized that Kryonus had used the Force. Using the Force, Rey managed to find out what the boy had seen that caused the outburst, and punished those that did the crime, seeing herself in Kryonus and taking him under her wing. Now fourteen years old, he follows his big family around wherever they go, excited at the second chance at a family and second chance at life he’d been granted.

Rey peeked inside the training room, not intending to train that day seeing she was wearing a gown, but wanting to check up on the boy who was now sitting crossed legged trying to meditate. “And I’m supposed to be training him?”

Maaru nodded. “All the other knights either started as Palpatine’s apprentice, or had been trained by Iris. But Iris refuses to refer to herself as their teacher. Or yours for that matter.”

Rey blinked quickly a few times, watching Iris peacefully meditating in front of Kryo, and sighed. She muttered, “And who’s going to train me?” 

Maaru sighed, pulling Rey back from the door. “Every text that you’ve ever used for learning is in your office. They won’t give you what a mentor will, but they’re a start. My Rey also went to temples a lot to find guidance. You can use that as an excuse.” 

She nodded, looking at the older woman who was more than willing to help this impostor become the girl she raised. Rey shook her head. “I still don’t understand why you’re helping me. You don’t own me anything!”

Maaru shrugged. “My Rey was sweet and innocent like you once, and I had to stand by and watch that get destroyed through betrayal and heartbreak.” Maaru motioned towards her, as though the answer was obvious. “This is my do-over. I will protect your innocence.” 

“What makes you think I’m-”

Maaru giggled. “You trusted me so quickly, despite being in what you would call ‘enemy territory’. Despite being in a place where you know traitors thrive, you latched on to me from the beginning. Defended me, depended on me and trusted me. Blindly! I will return that gift.”

Rey felt warmth in her chest and stared, baffled at the woman. Never did she believe her being stupid and trusting would be rewarded. She nodded. “Thank you.”

Maaru simply shrugged and dragged Rey away. “Regardless, you’ve got a long day of approving and rejecting ahead of you. I will bring your lunch to your office.”

Rey sighed. She never thought she’d miss scavenging in her life, but that usually required less critical thinking than deciding who gets to use certain trade routes and who doesn't and how that will affect the economy of the Empire; or if rejecting certain people will cause a different war. 

“Can I walk outside after the work is done?” 

“Maybe,” Maaru said with a tone of mockery. “But the pile is high.”

And it was. 79 sectors, a maximum of five requests to pass something - law, favors, ordinances, or simply requests - for each system per month, and every system used them all each month. Each one came with a lot of pages of information; detailed reports explaining why Rey should pass it, give it, or allow it; pros and cons, and several pages worth of information that she didn’t understand.

So, by the time night came and Maaru arrived with Leia, Ben and their holopad full of information that she needed to approve by tomorrow morning, she was irritated. 

“It is four hours until midnight. I do not mean any disrespect, but why did you think this was an appropriate time to hand this to me and not earlier?”

Maaru motioned for the pair to sit down, pulling in a chair from the breakfast nook outside for Ben, who then rejected it, deciding to stand back, close to the now closed door, parallel to Maaru who stood patiently and observant, giving Rey a small reassuring smile. 

Leia sighed, handing the pad to Rey. “I had my own struggles discussing the matter with the Resistance. Apparently many were not happy–”

“Surprise, surprise.” She didn’t mean to be a bitch, but she has been reading all day and now had a migraine brewing in the back of her head.

Another deep sigh and Leia pushed on, still holding the pad. “The leaders I left behind gave me their reasons why they didn’t agree. And then explained to me that the other members got wind of the defeat and began… rioting…” 

Rey nodded, finally grabbing the pad, trying to calm down her irritation a bit. It’s got to be hard to quench a riot when you’re not there.

“Eventually it calmed down enough for them to be able to communicate with me again. In there are the entire details of our terms regarding those planets and what will happen to them.”

“And the representatives? The senators?”

Leia nodded. “As per your request, my brother agreed–”

“After much arguing–”

“Benjamin Organa-Solo.” Rey had never seen Leia yell at her son like a mother scolding her child, and it shocked her. It shouldn’t. He’s being annoying just for the sake of being petty, and it could hurt what little control of the situation his mother has left, so Leia has every reason to scold him. But it still shocked her.

The man pretended to be very interested with the wood of her bookshelves, trying his best to not look like a grown man who just got reprimanded by his mother. Trying his best to not look like he was genuinely scared of his mother. Rey was trying her best not to laugh, or even smile.

She nodded and motioned to Leia. “Continue.”

Leia angrily sighed. “Luke agreed to be the representative for Ahch-To, granted he’d be allowed to choose who the representative for Dantooine would be. He chose Voe Loz. And as per your request–”

While her memory is foggy a bit at times due to her still adjusting to this place, she does remember someone else mentioning Voe’s name. And that was Hux, mentioning them along with the great title of Jedi Master. “One of Luke’s students?”

“She’s no longer a student. She’s a master–”

“She’s a Jedi. You’re putting two Jedi Masters in my senate?”

Leia took a deep breath and acknowledged her question. “You said I could pick anyone I wanted.”

Rey agreed and shrugged. “But Luke picked her. Not you. And believe it or not, I can see what he’s trying to do.”

Ben, Rey noticed, looked uncomfortable in the back, tense. And her understanding for his desperate need to wear a mask in the other world became increasingly obvious. The man couldn’t hide his feelings even if his life depended on it. 

“Regardless, I will allow it. With the Resistance finished there will come some new changes. And…” Rey smiled and gestured at Leia. “Continue.”

Surprisingly enough Leia looked a tad confused but she continued. “As per your request, Poe Dameron is to become the representative for D’Qar. Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo will be the representative for Ajan Kloss–”

“If you keep the title of Vice Admiral you make it sound like all you’re doing is dressing up a loth-wolf in sheep's clothing. She’s now just a senator. No more Vice Admiral. I spoke with all the admirals of the Empire today and she’s not one of them. So, Senator Amilyn Holdo for Cademimu, Sanbra’s is Senator Poe Dameron, Ahch-To would be Senator Luke Skywalker, Raioballo’s will be Senator Voe Loz and who else?”

Leia controlled her glare surprisingly well and smiled. “And the senator for Crait will be Gial Ackbar.”

She knew this man too, she had seen and heard of him while at the Resistance, and so she nodded. “Alright.” Rey looked down at the holopad, internally sighing at the document she would now have to scourge through by morning. “Maaru, when is the announcement going to be?”

“After lunch, Your Majesty. It will be transmitted live on the holo from the safety of your throne room, and as such we will need some time in the morning to prepare for the announcement. Supreme Commander Hux has already announced the transmission, so the galaxy will be awaiting it.” Having spent the past two days whispering and huddling with Maaru, it made her pause to hear her talking so… formally.

Rey looked up. “Is the speech ready?”

“Supreme Commander Hux is awaiting your approval regarding the senators of the new acquisitions and as such has not yet finished the speech.”

Rey tilted her head at Leia and smiled. “Poor man is now going to have to rush to finish a speech so late at night. Looks like none of us are sleeping tonight.” Rey looked at Ben and bobbed her head at him. “Either sit down or get comfortable with the wall. Your mother is not leaving until I finish reading and approving this.”

Rey looked down, ignoring the glare that immediately decorated Ben’s face and began scouring through the pad in her hand. She heard Leia sigh as she got comfortable on the chair, but other than that no one else said a word as Rey read through their terms of surrender.

Two hours in and Rey’s neck was screaming at her to give up and do it in the morning, but she pushed through. The two times Rey looked up to ask a question about what she read, either to Leia or Maaru - who’d move to stand by Rey’s side - she’d noticed both women looked tired with age but patient with stubborness; but neither women’s posture dropped for a second. Ben, on the other hand, gave up on standing by hour three, pulling the chair to his place by the door, sitting straight and closing his eyes in a passive way that she knew had nothing to do with sleeping, and more to do with meditation for distraction. 

_Don’t worry Ben, politics bores me too. At least you can escape it._

Batting aside the attempt to try and push the Jedi Order more into the senate and their attempt to take control of the trade routes related to those planets, the meeting ended with only one fight - the one about trade routes. Leia decided that the Jedi Order was Luke’s fight and if he really wanted it he would fight for it. And so at two in the morning, were four extremely tired people, three of whom would still have to wake up in an estimate of five hours to begin getting ready early for today’s announcement. 

_Kriff._

With the Organa-Solos gone, Maaru helped her out of her dress, the trainee ladies in waiting having already gone to bed, and sighed heavily as the pins from her hair dropped on a ceramic bowl.

“You are a Jedi.”

Rey turned around, continuing to pull the pins out of her hair as Maaru looked for the night gown. “A knight, yes. Why do you mention that?”

“Why are you so adamant about not letting the Jedi Order in the Empire? It’s your people.” Maaru sounded genuinely confused as she dropped down, opening the gown for Rey to step into, helping her zip it up at the back.

Rey sighed. “The Order has done nothing good. Even Luke doesn’t believe in it. At least in my world he didn’t. Gave me a long speech about it. Their morals may be in the right place, but they’re imposing, controlling and shame those who don’t think like them.”

Maaru ran her hands through Rey’s hair, making sure she didn’t miss a pin. “And so are the Sith.”

Rey nodded. “I will find the middle ground. It can’t be ‘balanced’ to have the Jedi in control. Or the Sith. Otherwise, why would the Force send me back?” She sighed. “Ben was all I had connecting me to the dark side - well…that and my heritage. But everything I know about it, I know it from Ben. And now he doesn’t know any of that. He only knows what Luke has taught him.”

Maaru smiled and squeezed her shoulders in reassurance.

“I have to start immediately with training. Before either side starts forcing– no, pushing the idea that one side is the right one. I have to become the example that both sides work better together.”

Maaru let out a breathy, short laugh. “I think the Force wants you and Ben to become the example.”

Rey shrugged. “We’ll see.”

When Rey’s head dropped on her pillow it felt unreal and magnificent, to the point she’d wondered for a second if this time she would wake up back in Tatooine. 

_She chased again. Cold forests and the threat of flying ships in the sky, but she kept chasing. She knew the ground was moving. She knew the base was falling._

_But she couldn’t let him go._

_She would die on this crumbling base if it meant getting to hold him one last time._

_He stopped. She did too. And then he turned around._

_Ben looked scared. But Ben wasn’t looking at her._

_She looked to her side._

_And Kylo looked happy._

_“We’ll keep running around in circles if we keep denying the darkness inside of us,” she murmured._

_She looked back at Ben who looked angry and terrified of the man beside her._

_And she heard Kylo whisper in her ear, “Watch us make the same mistakes.”_

“Okay, get up. Today’s look will be one to remember and as such it will require hours of work. If you want to eat before the announcement you need to get up now.”

Rey covered her face as Maaru pulled the drapes open, groaning into her pillow as Kylo’s words disappeared into her subconscious. 

When she heard the door open with the rhythmic stepping of the ladies leaving the room to, presumably, get something, she felt Maaru lean in close and angrily mutter to her, “Don’t make me repeat myself, Reyna Palpatine.”

Rey pushed herself off the bed to look at Maaru incredulously. “Is my name Reyna?”

Maaru shrugged, leaning back. “Your grandfather named you. Your parents shortened it. I’m sure it was to spite him.” She walked away, pulling the sheets with her. “It means queen. It’s slightly misspelled, but regardless, he knew what he wanted to do with you from the beginning.”

Rey groaned and got off the bed, following Maaru to the warm bath that eased her still cramped neck. After getting primped, waxed, and scrubbed within an inch of her life, she got removed from the warm bath to then get shoved into another heavy dress. This one was made from a thick silk fabric of a deep, rich burgundy color in a very regal ball gown design that was both imposing and extravagant. It had a tight fitting bodice with a high neckline and an extremely full skirt that was given its outrageously unnatural shape by the perplexing cage-like structure she had to wear underneath it – _whoever invented these things certainly did not consider the potential need to engage in a lightsaber duel_. The bodice and the bottom edge of the skirt were decorated with an elaborate gold lace and over the dress was a layered cape. The short top cape matched the dress with the same fabric and gold pattern, along with a gold fringe, whilst the long cape underneath that reached the floor almost like a train, was of a lighter voile fabric in a slightly darker shade of burgundy. 

Her hair was fashioned into an elaborate and unusual style that, ironically, held some small resemblance to her old three buns. The top section and sides were swept back into three large open rolls sitting from the top of her crown down the back. The rest of her hair was then secured in a simple ponytail under the bottom roll which hung down her back. The side sections had also been curled to give them a wavy texture. 

To finish off her hair, she wore a crown/tiara of gold set with large red rubies and golden citrines. The tiara sat back just in front of the top roll of hair and it had loops of gold chains that lay across her head in front of it, coming together at a large ruby with a teardrop citrine hanging on her forehead.

The overall effect was quite overwhelming. 

Looking at herself in the mirror she has never felt as much of an impostor as she does now. And the ironic part about it is that, technically, this was her achievement. It was her words that ended this war, not ‘Other Rey’s’ words. But the feeling didn’t cease. 

Luckily she didn’t have to look at the face of the impostor seeing as her face was caked with makeup; a white foundation covering her entire face down to her neck, her eyes lined in thick red lines that extended her eyeline further than possible, with a thin line emerging from the middle of each eye vertically down to the middle of her cheeks. Having her eyebrows caked white, they were replaced by six black, round onyx stones, imitating the shape of her eyebrows. Her lips only had a thick red vertical stripe going through them.

She sighed, walking away from the mirror, ignoring the heavy sound of her steps, or the shift of the gems on her head. Maaru had called this a look to remember, and she wasn’t wrong! She was a fortune in heels and lies in a dress. 

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, because the crown is heavy!

She took a deep breath as Maaru sidled up to her, a controlled and submissive smile on her face as the ladies proceeded to open the door for Rey, showing a gathering of black clad stormtroopers waiting for her in her private parlour, or solar, as Maaru had called it. 

Maaru barely turned her head towards Rey as she murmured, “I get you’re scared, irritated, tired and probably feel like this is all unnecessary, but you are the face of this Empire, you are their strength and their weakness. If your face does not coincide with the emotion the Empire expects you to be feeling with this announcement, your people will wonder and fear.” Rey turned to look at Maaru, eye to eye as Maaru added somberly, “Or riot.”

Rey nodded, internally sighing as she pasted on the most political smile she could fathom, emulating Leia’s grace in moments of dread as much as possible. If Leia could smile and hold control of her people during a war, Rey can do it during peace.

Before walking towards her escort though, she asked Maaru, “I thought I didn’t have guards.”

“They are most likely Hux or Phasma’s last resort to keeping you safe before the announcement. They are the Special Forces.”

Rey nodded, walking forward and watching in silent wonder as the ten of them silently arranged themselves around Rey, four in the front, four on the back and two by each side, none looking at her, none addressing, none bowing, but Rey imagined it’d be hard to protect someone from danger if you’re looking down. 

She looked back at Maaru who just nodded at her to move, and as she did the stormtroopers moved with her like a shadow. 

It was a long, so long, walk to the throne room with an uncomfortable ride down the elevator in which only four of her troopers could fit in with her and her dress, leaving Maaru and the ladies behind with the other six, and a good wait by the elevator as they troopers refused to move until all of them were covering every angle from which someone could attack their Empress. 

Rey knew in her previous world she was worth a lot to the Resistance. She was the remaining legacy of Palpatine having been trained in the ways of the Jedi by both Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo, before she, along with the First Order’s Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, destroyed Palpatine for good. She was like a precious gemstone to the Resistance and a dream, a fantasy, for those who ached for freedom or escape from the hell that they grew up in. 

In here though she wasn’t just a gemstone, she was the entire fortune. She was priceless and no amount of guards were enough guards. 

Maaru told her that these are additional guards and that the hundreds of guards surrounding the palace have not been moved from their station, quite the contrary, more have been added for the day’s event. 

Hux told her as he gave her the holopad with her speech that in Ajan Kloss there were riots occurring and that there was movement and talks in the Outer Rim regarding the Empire’s final takedown of the Resistance. He suspects some Resistance members couldn’t keep their mouths shut and let loose the version of the story that they had wanted to spread, which is that the Empire won. It happened before they had wanted it to, but at least it was the correct story. Unfortunately, the Outer Rim systems were not happy, fearing that with the Resistance dealt with the Empire was now going to turn its eye on them. 

Hux raised his eyebrows, implying that the assumption to take over was tempting, to which Rey shook her head. “We’ll talk about that later.”

As she stood in front of her throne, a black hunk of a thing that looked both delicate and dangerous, Phasma joined her, trailing behind her Leia and Ben Solo.

Phasma sighed, having a mask to cover her distaste for such events, and muttered to Rey as she got as close as she could, “Are we still sure about the idea of having the Jedi be your guard, Your Majesty? The talk we had on the way here suggested he’d much rather cut himself down than protect you.”

Rey shrugged, a bitter smile marking her face. “At least he’s not suggesting killing _me_.”

Phasma’s shoulders raised as she took in a very deep breath before shaking her head and walking to stand beside the throne, as though that was her position, and it probably was.

Rey turned to Leia, silently watching as she bowed, giving Rey a surprisingly kind smile. Leia motioned towards her dress. “Your ladies decked you out to the nines today, Your Majesty. You are looking like an image of sovereignty and grace.”

Rey looked down and agreed, a small sneer forcing its way to her face. “This took longer than it should have. Due to that I haven’t eaten. This is my way of saying I hate this dress.”

Leia looked down and before looking up again she gave a quick passing look to her son, turning to Rey with a smile that suggested she knew something Rey didn’t.

Hux walked towards her, looking a bit panicked. “Read, Your Majesty! We have ten minutes before we go live.”

Before she could look at her holopad she was aghast as Hux straight up manhandled her towards her throne, sitting her down and pointing to the holopad before walking away to tell Leia and Ben where they were supposed to sit. 

The throne sat on a large dais, having enough space to situate the two Stormtroopers on the back, five feet away from her on either side. Phasma and Leia stood on her left, Phasma standing closer to the Stormtrooper than Leia who stood just by her side. On the opposite side Hux and Ben, Hux looking like he wanted murder for being pushed back further than he probably usually was during these announcements, and Ben standing by her side looking like his worst nightmares were coming true. 

This was going to go great!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I don't know when the next update will be as currently I'm trying to write a "Chapter by Chapter" run down of what will happen so instead of guessing how I could write the plot point in (as is what happened with the Leia plot line you'll see soon) I know, and I'll know how to connect all the dots and .... I know what I'm doing, I'm trying to make this story better. Forgive my rambling.
> 
> Please comment, kudos, subscribe, follow, bookmark etc!

**Author's Note:**

> I repeat, a BAJILLION thanks to my beta (I_Feel_It_Too) who keeps teaching me how to use commas and with whom I had lengthy discussion about whether or not Ben finished his Jedi training or not, or his Sith training. Cuz thats what I do on a Wednesday. 
> 
> Please leave a comment, or a kudo or PLEASE, recommend this story to a friend. 
> 
> If you think there's a lore error, please point it out. My Star Wars knowledge is limited to main trilogy and sequel trilogy, and my beta is a movies-only. We spend a lot of time on wookiepedia. There could be errors that were unintentional.  
> If they they were intentional, we will address it.


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